Alain Mabanckou is a Franco-Congolese author and Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. His novels include Blue White Red, African Psycho, Broken Glass, Memoirs of a Porcupine, Black Bazaar, Tomorrow I¿ll Be Twenty, The Lights of Pointe-Noire, and Black Moses. He is the recipient of numerous literary prizes, such as the Grand Prix Litt¿ire de l¿Afrique noire, Prix Renaudot, Prix Georges Brassens, and the Grand Prix de Litt¿ture Henri Gal from the Acad¿e Fran¿se for his life¿s work.Dominic Thomas is Madeleine L. Letessier Professor of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. His books include Nation-Building, Propaganda, and Literature in Francophone Africa, Black France: Colonialism, Immigration, and Transnationalism, and Africa and France: Postcolonial Cultures, Migration, and Racism.