Contributing Authors
Click on an author name below to go directly to that author’s bio:
Carolina De Robertis
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Reyna Grande
Michelle Herrera Mulligan
Lorraine Lopez
Daisy Martinez
Dr. Ana Nogales
Sofia Quintero
Teresa Rodriguez
Esmeralda Santiago
Fabiola Santiago
Luis Alberto Urrea
Carolina De Robertis is the author of the novels Perla and The Invisible Mountain, which was an international bestseller translated into fifteen languages, a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, an O, The Oprah Magazine 2009 Terrific Read, and the recipient of Italy’s Rhegium Julii Prize. She is also the translator of various works of Latin American literature, most recently The Neruda Case by Roberto Ampuero. Carolina is the recipient of a 2012 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Oakland, California, with her wife and son. Learn more about Carolina at www.carolinaderobertis.com
Photo credit: Alexander Devora
Stephanie Elizondo Griest
Stephanie Elizondo Griest has mingled with the Russian Mafia, polished Chinese propaganda, and belly danced with Cuban rumba queens. These adventures inspired her award-winning memoirs Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines; and the guidebook 100 Places Every Woman Should Go. As a National Correspondent for The Odyssey, she once drove 45,000 miles across America in a Honda Hatchback named Bertha. She has won a Hodder Fellowship to Princeton, a Richard Margolis Award for Social Justice Reporting, and a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Gold Prize. Visit her website at www.mexicanenough.com.
Reyna Grande entered the United States from Mexico as an undocumented immigrant at the age of ten to be reunited with her father. She went on to become the first in her family to obtain a higher education. She holds a B.A. and an M.F.A. in creative writing. Her debut novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, received a 2006 El Premio Aztlan Literary Award, a 2007 American Book Award, and a 2010 Latino Books Into Movies Award. Her second novel, Dancing with Butterflies, received a 2010 International Latino Book Award. Her memoir, The Distance Between Us, will be published in 2012 by Atria Books. Visit her at www.reynagrande.com.
Michelle Herrera Mulligan is the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Latina. She edited and contributed to Juicy Mangos, the first-ever literary collection of Latina erotica in English, which Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos called “not only a tantalizing read, but a deeply rewarding one as well.” In 2004, she co-edited Border-Line Personalities, a collection of essays on culture clash and the contemporary American Latina experience. In 2006 she received an Outstanding Contributions to Hispanic Studies Award. Michelle has contributed to Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, Time International, Woman’s Day, Latina, House & Garden, and Publisher’s Weekly, among others. She lives in New York and is currently at work on her first novel. Learn more about Michelle at www.michelleherreramulligan.com/michellesblog/
Lorraine Lopez’ first book, Soy la Avon Lady, won the inaugural Miguel Marmól Prize. Her novel, Call Me Henri, was awarded the Paterson Prize, and her novel, The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters, was a 2008 Borders/Las Comadres Selection. Lorraine’s short story collection, Homicide Survivors Picnic, was a 2010 Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize. She edited a collection of essays titled, An Angle of Vision. Her novel, The Realm of Hungry Spirits, was released in 2011. She has co-edited, with Blas Falconer, The Other Latin@. She teaches fiction writing at Vanderbilt University. Learn more about Lorraine at www.lorrainelopez.net
Daisy Martinez is the author the cookbooks Daisy Cooks! Latin Flavors that Will Rock Your World, which was an IACP nominee and winner of the Best Latino Cuisine Cookbook in the World by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, as well as Daisy: Morning, Noon and Night, and Daisy’s Holiday Cooking: Delicious Latin Recipes for Effortless Entertaining. In 2005 she launched the cooking program Daisy Cooks! on PBS. As Daisy’s star ascended she met the iconic Rachael Ray and this chance meeting led to Ray’s production company, Watch Entertainment, producing Viva Daisy!, which debuted on the Food Network in 2009.
Daisy’s newest show continues her focus on celebrating life and family through food, while demonstrating her knowledge of the broad spectrum of Latin cuisine. In addition to her TV show, Daisy is also a regular columnist for Every Day with Rachael Ray. A dedicated mother of four fantastic children, Daisy and her family reside in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Daisy at www.daisymartinez.com
Photo credit: Nigel Skeet
Dr. Ana Nogales
Ana Nogales, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, founder of Nogales Psychological Counseling, Inc., and Clinical Director of the nonprofit organization Casa de la Familia, which she established for victims of rape, sexual assault, child sexual and physical abuse, human trafficking, and domestic violence. She recently launched her magazine Doctora Ana: Salud Psicologia y Vida. She is the author of Latina Power: Using Your 7 Strengths to Say No to Abusive Relationships, Parents Who Cheat: How Children and Adults Are Affected When Their Parents Are Unfaithful, and Latina Power! Using Your 7 Strengths to Create the Success You Deserve. Dr. Nogales is also a well-known television and radio psychologist as well as a writer for Psychology Today.com. and other blogs and periodicals. Learn more about Dr. Nogales at www.ananogales.com
Sofia Quintero was born to and raised by a working-class Puerto Rican and Dominican family in the Bronx. After graduating from Columbia University and having a first career in public policy, she has published five novels and counting, including her award-winning young adult debut, Efrain’s Secret. She co-founded the nonprofit Chica Luna Productions which earned a Union Square Award for its work in cultivating the next generation of women of color filmmakers. Sofia is also the producer and creator of the web series and social network HomeGirl.TV and is presently a member of the inaugural class of the TV Writers Studio at Long Island University. When not producing Sangria Street with Elisha Miranda, the self-professed Ivy League homegirl, she is adapting her novel Burn (written as Black Artemis) as a television series. Learn more about Sofia’s work at www.sisteroutsider.biz/quintero.php
Teresa Rodriguez is co-anchor of Univision’s primetime award-winning weekly newsmagazine, Aquí y Ahora (Here and Now) and has received 11 Emmy awards for her outstanding work on television specials, investigative reports and features. Her 10-year investigative report on the terrifying rape and murders of more than 450 Mexican women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, was published by Atria Books in both Spanish and English, under the title The Daughters of Juárez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border, and quickly rose to the best-seller lists. Learn more about Teresa at www.teresarodriguez.tv/Teresa/Home.aspx
Photo credit: (c) Robert Curtis/Cantomedia
Esmeralda Santiago
Esmeralda Santiago was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She came to the United States at thirteen, the eldest in a family that would eventually include eleven children. Esmeralda attended New York City’s Performing Arts High School, where she majored in drama and dance. After eight years of part-time study at community colleges, she transferred to Harvard University with a full scholarship. She graduated magna cum laude. In 1977, she and her husband, Frank Cantor, founded CANTOMEDIA, a film and media production company, which has won numerous awards for excellence in documentary filmmaking. She is the author of three memoirs: When I was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman, The Turkish Lover and of the novels América’s Dream and Conquistadora. Esmeralda has earned a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and Honorary Doctor of Letters from Trinity University, from Pace University, from Metropolitan College and from Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Mayaguez. The mother of two adult children, she lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband, filmmaker Frank Cantor. Learn more about Esmeralda at www.esmeraldasantiago.com
Photo credit: Pedro Portal
Fabiola Santiago
Fabiola Santiago, a prize-winning journalist at The Miami Herald and the newspaper’s Metro columnist, is the author of the novel Reclaiming Paris. Set to the backdrop of Miami’s Cuban culture and history, it’s the story of a woman who switches perfumes whenever she changes lovers along her journey to reconcile the loss of family and country. Published by Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books in two languages, Siempre París in Spanish, and chosen for a Mariposa Award as Best First Book at the International Latino Book Awards, the novel is a bestseller in Norway, where it was translated and re-titled Habanita. Read more at www.reclaimingparis.com and her website www.fabiolasantiago.com.
Luis Alberto Urrea, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph. Born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother, Luis has published extensively in all the major genres. The critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 13 books, Luis has won numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. The Devil’s Highway, his 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize.
Luis attended the University of California at San Diego, earning an undergraduate degree in writing, and did his graduate studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. After serving as a relief worker in Tijuana and a film extra and columnist-editor-cartoonist for several publications, Urrea moved to Boston where he taught expository writing and fiction workshops at Harvard. He has also taught at Massachusetts Bay Community College and the University of Colorado and he was the writer in residence at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. Luis lives with his family in Naperville, IL, where he is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Learn more about Luis’ work at www.luisurrea.com