Dr. Ruth Behar is a scholar, novelist, poet, and public intellectual. She is the James W. Fernandez Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. Born in Havana, Cuba, she has lived in Spain and Mexico and has returned to Cuba to build bridges around culture and art. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Carnegie Corporation “Great Immigrant,” and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her acclaimed scholarly books include The Presence of the Past in a Spanish Village, Translated Woman, The Vulnerable Observer, An Island Called Home, and Traveling Heavy. Other works include a bilingual book of poems, Everything I Kept/Todo lo que guardé; a documentary, Adio Kerida; and the prize-winning middle grade novels, Lucky Broken Girl and Letters from Cuba, as well as a picture book, Tía Fortuna’s New Home, a story about exile and loss and the search for home. Her newest picture book, Pepita Meets Bebita, was co-authored with her son, Gabriel Frye-Behar, and addresses transitions in a new family. Her newest middle grade novel, Across So Many Seas, examines Sephardic pilgrimages from the point of view of four young girls living in different historical eras who are bound by threads of faith and seek freedom whatever the cost.
