Born in 1940 in Calcutta, Bharati Mukherjee spent her childhood in India and Britain before moving to the United States. Her celebrated titles include Days and Nights in Calcutta and The Middleman and Other Stories. Clark Blaise has published numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including If I Were Me and Lunar Attractions. Both serve as faculty in Berkeley's English department, and they have been married to each other for 45 years.