BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD is a Carl Sandburg Prize—winning poet and the bestselling, prize-winning author of five acclaimed historical novels, Sally Hemings, Valide: A Novel of the Harem, Echo of Lions, The President’s Daughter, and Hottentot Venus, and three collections of poetry, From Memphis and Peking, Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra, and the forthcoming Love Perfecting. Her books have been translated into nine languages worldwide and also include the French-language novel Roman Egyptian. A critically acclaimed sculptor, she has had a long international career of one-person exhibitions in major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, her award-winning monuments grace Lower Manhattan, and she has participated in more than a hundred museum exhibitions in the United States and abroad. In 1996 she received a knighthood from the French government. Born in Philadelphia of Canadian American descent, she was educated at Yale University, was the first American woman to visit China after the Revolution (in 1965), has received numerous fellowships and honorary degrees, and divides her time between Paris, Rome, and New York. Her Web site is www.barbara-chase-riboud.com.