Azouz Begag, novelist, sociologist and former government minister, was born of Algerian immigrants in France. His best-selling narratives include the autobiographical Le Gone du Chaâba (1986) and Un Mouton dans la baignore (2007), describing his experiences as Minister for Equal Opportunities. He has been a Visiting Professor at Florida State University.

Alain Mabanckou, of Congolose origin, won the Grand Prix littéraire de l'Afrique noire for his first novel, Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (1998). He garnered further accolades for his subsequent novels, including Verre cassé (2005) and Mémoires de porc-épic (2006), for which he was awarded the Prix Renaudot. He is Professor of Francophone Literatures at UCLA.

Abdourahman Waberi was born in Djibouti and studied English literature in France. His novels and short stories, including Le Pays d'ombre (1994), Moisson de crânes (2000), Transit (2003) and Aux Etats-Unis d'Afrique (2006), address key moral and political issues facing post-colonial Africa. He was awarded the Stefan-Georg-Preis in 2006 and was a Visiting Fellow at Wellesley College in 2007-08.

Dominic Thomas chairs the Departments of French and Francophone Studies and Italian at the University of California Los Angeles. He is the author of Nation-Building, Propaganda and Literature in Francophone Africa (2002) and Black France: Colonialism, Immigration, and Transnationalism (2007).