Almanac of Story Tellers: Sandra Cisneros

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.

Today is the story of Dec. 20th

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    It is the 354th day of the year, leaving 11 days remaining in 2022. 

    

    On this date in 1954, the poet and novelist Sandra Cisneros was born.

    She tells her stories about the struggles and triumphs of Chicanas, often from a personal perspective. While she write mostly in English, she never hesitates to incorporate Spanish into her stories, as a sense of place, or to heighten her descriptions. 

    Her poems, short stories, and novels often mirror her life as a woman between two cultures but never feeling comfortable in either. Yet, she and they survive, and girls and women overcame the hinderances of living a dual life that rarely appreciates their contributions.

    Cisneros was born into a Mexican family in Chicago, the only daughter in a family that included six sons. The family moved between Chicago and Mexico City, leaving Cisneros with the feeling of being part of neither culture. She took to writing, and mostly wrote poetry in her teenage years. After college, she attended the writers' workshop at the University of Iowa, where she found her voice.  

  

    Her first novel, The House on Mango Street, was published in 1983. It was semi-autobiographical, telling the story of a Mexican girl growing up in Chicago. It won several awards, and has become a classic coming-of-age story often taught in schools.

    Her awards have included a MacArthur Genius Grant. Her short story collections, Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories, came out in 1991 and won a PEN Award.

    She has written numerous books of poetry, from Bad Boys, published in 1980, to Loose Women, in 1994. Her latest collection, published in 2022,  is Women Without Shame: Poems.