Gloria Naylor (1950-2016) was born in New York City and grew up there. She graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in English and Yale University with an MA in Afro-American Studies. The Women of Brewster Place, her first novel, won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983. Linden Hills (Penguin), Mother Day, Bailey's Cafe, and The Men of Brewster Place are among her other works. Tayari Jones (foreword) is the New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage, which was chosen by Oprah for her Book Club and is a favorite of Barack Obama, as well as Silver Sparrow, The Untelling, and Leaving Atlanta. She is a professor-at-large at Cornell University and an Emory University professor of creative writing.