Piedmont-Marton has a Ph.D. in English and teaches American literature and coordinates the Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. In the essay below, she offers a general introduction to "Vengeful Creditor, "focusing upon issues related to class struggle.

"Vengeful Creditor" was first published in 1971 and two years later was included in the short story collection Girls at War, and Other Stories. Long before, following the publication of his first novel, Things Fall Apart, in 1958, Chinua Achebe established himself as Nigeria's best-known novelist. The subsequent publication of four more novels and several volumes of poetry has expanded his reputation to the point where he is now widely recognized as one of the preeminent writers of Africa. Achebe has also written many essays and delivered numerous speeches in which he discusses the role and responsibility of the modern African writer in the turbulent postcolonial period...