Lorna Dee Cervantes

Infobox writer
name = Lorna Dee Cervantes


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birthdate = August 6, 1954
birthplace = San Francisco, California
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occupation = poet
nationality = USA
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notableworks = "From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger"; "Emplumada"
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awards = American Book Award, NEA Fellowship, Pushcart Prize, Pulitzer nomination


website = http://lornadice.blogspot.com/
portaldisp = yes

Lorna Dee Cervantes (b. August 6, 1954, in San Francisco, California) is an award-winning Chicana-Native American poet who is considered one of the major Chicana poets of the past 40 years. She has been described by Alurista, Mexico’s premier poet, as "probably the best Chicana poet active today." [ [http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/cervantes-lorna-dee ENotes.com bio] (accessed March 2008)] Lorna Dee Cervantes was born in 1954 in California. She grew up in San Jose, speaking English exclusively. This was strictly enforced by her parents, who allowed only English to be spoken at home by her and her brother. This was to avoid the racism and genocide that was occurring in her community at that time. Lorna Dee Cervantes is currently a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She considers herself "a Chicana writer, a feminist writer, a political writer" (Cervantes). Although her literary works are held in high esteem, she often lacks self-confidence concerning her writing. Her two collections of poetry, Emplumada and From the Cable of Genocide, are the only published works exclusively written by Cervantes. She explains that this is due to the fact that she has "never been a writer who sends out a lot of manuscripts and a lot of poems...because of the terror of rejection" (Cervantes).

Life and career

Published works

include:
*"DRIVE: The First Quartet" (Pulitzer nominated)
*"From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger" (Arte Público Press, 1991)
*"Emplumada" (1981; American Book Award).
*"Red Dirt" (co-editor), a cross-cultural poetry journal
*"Mango" (founder), a literary review
*"Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry" (eds. Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan, 1994)
*"No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Women Poets" (ed. Florence Howe, 1993)
*"After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties" (ed. Ray González, 1992).

Awards

*American Book Award (1982)
*Pushcart Prize for starting Mango Publications
*National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grants for Poetry (1979 and 1989)
*Lila-Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation Writer’s Award for Outstanding Chicana Literature (1995)
*nominated, Pulitzer Prize

References

Critical studies

(as of march 2008)
#Poetry Saved My Life: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: González, Sonia V.; "MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States," 2007 Spring; 32 (1): 163-80.
#Poetry as Mother Tongue? Lorna Dee Cervantes's "Emplumada" By: Scheidegger, Erika. IN: Rehder and Vincent, "American Poetry: Whitman to Present." Tübingen, Germany: Narr Franke Attempto; 2006. pp. 193-208
#"The Shape and Range of Latina/o Poetry: Lorna Dee Cervantes and William Carlos Williams" By: Morris-Vásquez, Edith; Dissertation, U of California, Riverside, 2004.
#"Loss and Recovery of Memory in the Poetry of Lorna D. Cervantes" By: González, Sonia V.; Dissertation, Stanford U, 2004.
#Lorna Dee Cervantes (1954-) By: Harris-Fonseca, Amanda Nolacea. IN: West-Durán, Herrera-Sobek, and Salgado, "Latino and Latina Writers, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors." New York, NY: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 195-207
#Memphis Minnie, Genocide, and Identity Politics: A Conversation with Alex Stein By: Stein, Alex; "Michigan Quarterly Review," 2003 Fall; 42 (4): 631-47.
#"Remembering We Were Never Meant to Survive": Loss in Contemporary Chicana and Native American Feminist Poetics" By: Rodríguez y Gibson, Eliza; Dissertation, Cornell U, 2002.
#Love, Hunger, and Grace: Loss and Belonging in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes and Joy Harjo. By: Rodriguez y Gibson, Eliza; "Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers," 2002; 19 (1): 106-14.
#"Chicana Ways: Conversations with Ten Chicana Writers" By: Ikas, Karin Rosa (ed.), Reno, NV: U of Nevada P; 2002.
#I Trust Only What I Have Built with My Own Hands: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: González, Ray; "Bloomsbury Review," 1997 Sept-Oct; 17 (5): 3, 8.
#Bilingualism and Dialogism: Another Reading of Lorna Dee Cervantes's Poetry By: Savin, Ada. IN: Arteaga, "An Other Tongue: Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands." Durham, NC: Duke UP; 1994. pp. 215-23
#"An Utterance More Pure Than Word": Gender and the Corrido Tradition in Two Contemporary Chicano Poems. By: McKenna, Teresa. IN: Keller and Miller, "Feminist Measures: Soundings in Poetry and Theory." Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P; 1994. pp. 184-207
#Divided Loyalties: Literal and Literary in the Poetry of Lorna Dee Cervantes, Cathy Song and Rita Dove By: Wallace, Patricia; "MELUS," 1993 Fall; 18 (3): 3-19.
#Lorna Dee Cervantes's Dialogic Imagination By: Savin, Ada; "Annales du Centre de Recherches sur l'Amérique Anglophone," 1993; 18: 269-77.
#Tres momentos del proceso de reconocimiento en la voz poética de Lorna D. Cervantes By: Alarcón, Justo S.. IN: López González, Malagamba, and Urrutia, "Mujer y literatura mexicana y chicana: Culturas en contacto, II." Mexico City; Tijuana: Colegio de México; Colegio de la Frontera Norte; 1990. pp. 281-285
#Lorna Dee Cervantes (6 August 1954 - ) By: Fernández, Roberta. IN: Lomelí and Shirley, "Chicano Writers: First Series." Detroit, MI: Gale; 1989. pp. 74-78
#Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective By: Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. IN: Herrera-Sobek and Viramontes, "Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature." Houston: Arte Publico; 1988. pp. 139-145
#La búsqueda de la identidad en la literatura chicana/tres textos By: Alarcón, Justo S.; "Confluencia: Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura," 1987 Fall; 3 (1): 137-143.
#Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective By: Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne; "The Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA," 1987 Fall-Winter; 15 (3-4): 139-145.
#Notes toward a New Multicultural Criticism: Three Works by Women of Color By: Crawford, John F.. IN: Harris and Aguero, "A Gift of Tongues: Critical Challenges in Contemporary American Poetry." Athens: U of Georgia P; 1987. pp. 155-195
#Bernice Zamora y Lorna Dee Cervantes: Una estética feminista By: Bruce-Novoa; "Revista Iberoamericana", 1985 July-Dec.; 51 (132-133): 565-573.
#"Emplumada": Chicana Rites-of-Passage By: Seator, Lynette; "MELUS", 1984 Summer; 11 (2): 23-38.
#Soothing Restless Serpents: The Dreaded Creation and Other Inspirations in Chicana Poetry By: Rebolledo, Tey Diana; "Third Woman," 1984; 2 (1): 83-102.
#Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes By: Monda, Bernadette; "Third Woman," 1984; 2 (1): 103-107.

See also

*List of Mexican American writers
*List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas
*Latino poetry