Mary Ann Caws is distinguished professor emerita of comparative literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She is an Officer in the Palmes Académiques, a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et Lettres, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the author of many books, including Creative Gatherings: Meeting Places of Modernism and Mina Loy: Apology of Genius, both also published by Reaktion Books.