Christen Pruitt was born on January 13, 1983 in New Jersey. She was raised by her parents along with three brothers and two sisters in Highland Park, NJ, where she lived until 2003. In 2003 she and her daughter Amber moved to Tampa, FL. Shortly thereafter Christen began a career in high-end retail fashion at Neiman Marcus, Gucci, and BCBG. In 2006 Christen moved to New York City and began working at Saks Fifth Avenue before changing the direction of her career to non-profit program administration for the New York City Mission Society. At Harlem's Minisink Townhouse on Lenox Avenue and 142nd Street, Christen worked as a program coordinator for CREW (Career Readiness & Education Workshops) and SYEP (Summer Youth Employment Program). While working with under-privileged teens to prepare them for higher education and future careers, Christen realized that she had done herself a dis-service by not finishing college herself. She enrolled in City College in 2008 and juggled full time work with full time school. In 2009 Christen was laid off due to the budget crisis and is currently a full-time junior English major and a French minor. She was accepted into the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship in March 2011 and participated in the Summer Research Training Program at U Chicago. Research interests include Caribbean francophone literature, particularly Haitian and Martinician texts. She hopes to enter a Ph.D. program in the fall of 2013 in a yet to be determined literary discipline and pursue a full time tenured professorships.