Blaise Ndala is a Canadian writer originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His debut novel, J’irai danser sur la tombe de Senghor, won the Ottawa Book Award for French fiction and was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award. His book Sans capote ni kalachnikov won the 2019 Combat des livres and was a finalist for the Grand prix littéraire d’Afrique noire and the Trillium Book Award. In the Belly of the Congo is his first book to appear in English.