Maryse Condé was born in Guadeloupe in 1937, the youngest of eight siblings. She earned her doctorate at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, and taught Francophone Literature at Columbia University in New York, where she lived for many years. She has also lived in various West African countries, where she gained inspiration for her worldwide bestseller Segu, for which she was awarded the African Literature Prize. Condé was awarded the New Academy Prize (or "Alternative Nobel") in Literature as well as the Cino Del Duca World Award for her oeuvre. Best known as a novelist, Maryse Condé's essays are a cornerstone of her oeuvre.

Born in Montréal in 1970, Nathanaël is the author of some forty books written in French or in English, and published in Canada, the United States, Québec and France. The recipient of the Prix Alain-Grandbois (Qc), a Publishing Triangle Award (USA), and the Prix de l'Académie Claudine de Tencin (Fr), she has been awarded fellowships from the PEN American Centre, the CNL, Terre d'Arts/etc Caraïbe, and the Archives de Martinique. Nathanaël's translations include works by Édouard Glissant, Danielle Collobert, Catherine Mavrikakis and Hilda Hilst (the latter in collaboration with Rachel Gontijo Araújo).