Trudier Harris grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She is the author of numerous books, including From Mammies to Militants: Domestics in Black American Literature; Saints, Sinners, Saviors: Strong Black Women in African American Literature; and Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison. She is also coeditor of a number of anthologies, including The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. She is currently the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.