Emmanuel Dongala worked, until 1997, as dean of Brazzaville University in the Congo Republic, a professor of chemistry, and a writer honored in France with the rank of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Because of a violent civil war, Dongala fled Africa and with the help of his friend Philip Roth he became a professor in chemistry and Francophone African literature at Bard College in upstate New York. He is the president of Congolese PEN and the National Association of Congolese Writers, author of three award-winning novels and a collection of short stories, and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999.