Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was born in 1951 in Pusan, Korea, and moved with her family to San Francisco at the age of 11. She received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and did postgraduate work in Paris. In 1982, a stranger murdered Cha in New York City, just a few days after the original publication of Dictee (reprinted by UC Press).

Constance M. Lewallen is Adjunct Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Among her books are A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s and The Dream of an Audience: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982), both from UC Press.