Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French historian and philosopher associated with the structuralist and poststructuralist movements, whose work has been widely influential throughout the humanities and social sciences. Some of his most notable titles are Madness and Civilization, Discipline and Punish, and The History of Sexuality.

Robert Bononno has been a translator from French for more than twenty years. His recent nonfiction translations include Toward an Architecture of Enjoyment, by Henri Lefebvre (Minnesota, 2014), and Speech Begins after Death, by Michel Foucault and Claude Bonnefoy (Minnesota, 2013).