Teresa Mendez-Faith was born in Asuncion, Paraguay. She received her PhD at the University of Michigan in 1979. She currently resides in New England. An essayist, literary critic and college professor, she teaches Hispanic-American literature at Saint Anselm College, New Hampshire. She has authored several books including Paraguay: Novela y Exilio (1985) and Nuevos contextos: Doce cuentistas contemporaneos de Hispanoamerica (2002), and is co-author of four Spanish textbooks. Teresa Mendez-Faith has been awarded several academic distinctions, including two postgraduate scholarships from the National for Endowment the Humanities, the AAUP Teacher of the Year" prize at her college (1990) and, also that same year, the "Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award"."