Carmen Boullosa?a Cullman Center, a Guggenheim, a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, and a Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes Fellow?was born in Mexico City in 1954. She's a poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, and artist, and has been a professor at New York University, Columbia University, City College?City University of New York, Georgetown, and other institutions. She's now at Macaulay Honors College?City University of New York. The New York Public Library acquired her papers and artist books. More than a dozen books and over ninety dissertations have been written about her work.

Samantha Schnee is the founding editor of Words Without Borders, dedicated to publishing the world's best literature translated into English. Her translation of Boullosa's Texas: The Great Theft was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for the PEN America Translation Prize. She won the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation for her work on Boullosa's El complot de los Románticos.