Maya Angela Smith

Maya Angela Smith is an American author who writes about language, race, migration, music, and identity. Her first book, Senegal Abroad, won the Modern Language Association's French and Francophone Studies Award. Her second book, Reclaiming Venus, chronicles the remarkable journey of her co-author Alvenia Bridges from segregated Kansas to the heights of fashion and rock 'n' roll, breaking barriers and rubbing shoulders with legends. Her third book, Ne me quitte pas, explores one of her favorite songs as it travels across languages, geographies, genres, and generations. She lives in Seattle where she is a linguist and professor in the French and Italian Studies department at the University of Washington.