BARBARA CHASE-RIBOUD’S first collection of poetry, From Memphis & Peking (1974), was edited by Toni Morrison and released to critical acclaim. Her second collection, Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra (1988), was awarded the Carl Sandburg Poetry Prize for Best American Poet. Her five historical novels include the bestselling Sally Hemings (1979), Valide (1986), Echo of Lions (1989), The President’s Daughter (1994), and Hottentot Venus (2004). She won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Best Novel by an American Woman for Sally Hemings. In 1996, she received a Knighthood in Arts and Letters from the French government in joint recognition of her literary and artistic achievements. Chase-Riboud is a renowned sculptor whose works belong to major museum collections around the world. She was honored with a rare living-artist personal exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000. In 2013, a major survey of her sculpture and drawings was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and then traveled to the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Born in Philadelphia of Canadian-American descent and a graduate of Yale University School of Art, she is the recipient of numerous fellowships and honorary degrees. She lives in Paris, Rome, and New York.