April 16

"It is impossible to read Maryse Condé's novels and not come away from them with both a sadder and more exhilirating understanding of the human heart, in all its secret intricacies, its contradictions and marvels . . . [She is] brilliant and prolific." --The New York Times Book Review

Maryse Condé, winner of France's prestigious Grand Prix Litéraire de la Femme, is the author of Ségou (a bestseller in France); The Children of Ségou; Tree of Life; The Last Magi; and other novels. One of her most celebrated books, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, was the first francophone Caribbean novel to connect the English Caribbean with the colonial United States, and the first of Condé's numerous works to successfully combine an introspective journey with an examination of what it means to be Caribbean. Her forthcoming book, Desirada, will be published just prior to her reading at Seton Hall. A native of Guadeloupe, she lived for many years in Paris, where she taught West Indian literature at the Sorbonne. She currently teaches at Columbia University.