A student and a teacher of Mali Ancestral Oral Tradition, and Philosophy of Life, Anna Dao was born in Paris and spent her formative years in Mali, France, New York, Belgium, Canada. She completed her education in Canada and for several years lived in Mali, working for various United Nations agencies. During this period, she produced and hosted a public affairs talk show in French, Affaires Publiques, and wrote a column for a weekly newspaper, Le Républicain. She immigrated to the United States in 1993 and now lives in New York. Finding Lalla’s Anna is her first book.