Inès Cagnati was born in Monclar, France, in the Aquitaine region of Lot-et-Garonne, and died in Orsay. The child of Italian immigrants, she became a French citizen but never considered herself French. With a bachelor’s degree in modern literature and a certificate for secondary-school instruction, she worked as a professor of literature at the Lycée Carnot in Paris. Cagnati was the author of four prize-winning books: Le Jour de congé (Free Day, 1973); Génie la folle (1976); Mosé, ou Le Lézard qui pleurait (1979); and Les Pipistrelles (1989).