Journalist Dany Laferrière immigrated to Canada from Haiti in 1978 after a colleague he was working on a story with was murdered. In Montreal, Laferrière wrote his provocative debut novel How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired, published first in French in 1985 and two years later in English, translated by David Homel. The book was a critical success and later turned into a film.

Laferrière has since published 19 books, including the 2006 Governor General Literary Award winner Je suis fou de Vava, as well as the novels The Return and The World is Moving Around Me.