Kwei Quartey was born in Ghana and raised by an American mother and a Ghanaian father, both of whom were university lecturers. As a teenager, he got into serious trouble with the military government for putting up protest posters; after a stint in prison for "sedition," he left for the United States, where he has lived ever since. In 2008 Quartey returned to Ghana for the first time and now visits frequently as research for his writing.
