Ruth Behar—ethnographer, novelist, poet, and filmmaker—is the James W. Fernandez Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. The recipient of two Fulbright Awards, a MacArthur “Genius Grant,” and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, she was named a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Behar is the author of several works of ethnography, including Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story and Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in Between Journeys, and the coming-of-age novels Lucky Broken Girl and Letters from Cuba. Born in Havana, she grew up in New York and has also lived in Spain and Mexico. Today she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.