MARIA ESPINOSA is a novelist, poet, and translator as well as a teacher. Her publications include three novels: Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew, Dark Plums, and Longing, which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. She has also published two collections of poems, Love Feelings, and Night Music, and a translation of George Sand's novel, Lélia. Recently she completed a fourth novel, Dying Unfinished, about the tangled relationship between a mother and daughter. Espinosa is concerned with human communication on a level that transcends the norms permitted by society. Her novels focus on the subtle as well as the obvious forces that shape a human being.