MARIA FIRMINA DOS REIS (1822--1917) was a Brazilian woman of mixed race, an educator, abolitionist, composer, poet, and fiction writer. Despite collaborating regularly with local newspapers, Reis was mostly forgotten until the late 1970s. Today her work has reclaimed wide critical attention, and she is considered a pioneer of Afro-Brazilian literature. CRISTINA FERREIRA PINTO-BAILEY, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, is a writer, scholar, translator, and visiting associate professor at Washington and Lee University. She is author of Gender, Discourse, and Desire in Twentieth-Century Brazilian Women's Literature.