Ruth Behar was born in Havana, Cuba to a mixed Ashke­nazi-Sephardic fam­i­ly. She grew up in New York, and became the first Lati­na to win a MacArthur Genius Grant. A cul­tur­al anthro­pol­o­gist, poet, and fic­tion writer, she explores Jew­ish iden­ti­ty in Lati­no and Cuban con­texts in her award-win­ning mid­dle-grade nov­els, Lucky Bro­ken Girl and Let­ters from Cuba. A grad­u­ate of Wes­leyan and Prince­ton, Behar is the Vic­tor Haim Per­era Col­le­giate Pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan, Ann Arbor.