Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, Mr. Potter, and See Now Then. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont. Kara Walker is best known for her candid investigation of race, gender, sexuality, and violence through silhouetted figures. Walker was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1997 and the United States Artists, Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship in 2008. She has been the Tepper Chair in Visual Arts at Rutgers University since 2015.

Her work can be found in museums throughout the world, including the Guggenheim, MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Tate Gallery. She lives in New York.