Marjolijn de Jager is a translator of both French and Dutch with a particular emphasis on writing by marginalized people and women in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. She is the winner of the 2021 Grand Prize for Translation given by the French Voices Award of the French Cultural Institute for her translation of THE MEDITERRANEAN WALL by Louis-Philipppe Dalembert, and her translation of the book Congo, Inc: Bismarck's Testament (Indiana University Press) was shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Awards in 2019. She lives in Connecticut.

Emmanuel Dongala, (b. 1941) is a Congolese author and scientist who came to the United States in 1997 due the civil war in Congo, and was offered a fellowship to teach chemistry at Bard College and its private school affiliate Simon's Rock, where he taught until 2014. He is the author of the novels, Group Photo by the Riverside, Little Boys Come from the Stars, and Johnny Mad Dog, which was adapted for a film. He lives in western Massachusetts near the historical home of W.E.B. Dubois.