Concei��o Evaristo was born in Belo Horizante in the state of Minas Gerais. She is a professor of Brazilian literature at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro (PUR/RJ) and is working on her doctorate in comparative literature. Her work deals with the social factors influencing families, including the power that women exert in their role as mothers and the consequences of societys failure to provide adequately for its youth. Her work has been published in the following anthologies: various issues of Cadernos Negros; Vozes de Mulheres (1991); Schwartze Prose; prosa negra-Afrobrasilianische Erz�hlungen der Gergenwart (1993); Moving Beyond Boundaries. International Dimension of Black… Women Writing (1995); Finally Us. Contemporary Black Brazilian Women Writers (1995); Callaloo, vol. 18 number 4 (1995). Ms. Evaristo is also featured in Fourteen Female Voices From Brazil (Host Publications, 2002).
PALOMA MARTINEZ-CRUZ is an assistant professor of Spanish language and literature and Latino Studies at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She is the translator of Conçeicão Evaristo's Brazilian novel Poncia Vicencio.