MARYSE CONDE is author of Segu, Children of Segu, Tree of Life, and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, along with several other novels published in French. She is the recipient of the prestigious French award Le Grand Prix Littéraire de la Femme, was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1987–88, and in 1993 was the first woman to be honored as a Puterbaugh Fellow by the University of Oklahoma. She is a professor at the Universities of Virginia and Maryland.
RICHARD PHILCOX is the translator of several of Maryse Condé’s novels, including I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Award, he has taught translation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, San Francisco State University and the University of Maryland.
Ms. Condé and Mr. Philcox are married and divide their time between the United States and her native Guadeloupe.