Ruth Behar

Ruth Behar was born in Havana to a mixed Ashke­nazi-Sephardic fam­i­ly, grew up in New York, and became the first Lati­na to win a MacArthur Genius Grant. An anthro­pol­o­gist, poet, film­mak­er, and writer, she is the author of the trav­el mem­oir An Island Called Home: Return­ing to Jew­ish Cuba, and the award-win­ning com­ing-of-age nov­el Lucky Bro­ken Girl. Her new nov­el Let­ters from Cuba, is inspired by her grand­moth­er’s sto­ry of escap­ing Poland to make a brand-new life in Cuba. A grad­u­ate of Wes­leyan and Prince­ton, Behar lives in Ann Arbor, where she is a pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michigan.