Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) was a Martinican poet, critic, essayist, playwright, and statesman; a founder of the Negritude movement; and one of the most influential Francophone Caribbean intellectuals of the twentieth century. He is the author of Journal of a Homecoming / Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, also published by Duke University Press.

Alex Gil is Senior Lecturer II and Associate Research Faculty of Digital Humanities in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University.

Brent Hayes Edwards is Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University