JUDITH ORTIZ COFER
Award-winning Puerto Rican-American Author
to discuss her work in honor
of National Hispanic Heritage Month,
NYS Writers Institute, September 25, 2007
4:15 p.m. Seminar | Assembly Hall, Campus Center
8:00 p.m. Reading | Assembly Hall, Campus Center
CALENDAR LISTING:
Judith Ortiz Cofer, award-winning Puerto Rican-American author, will read
from her work in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, on Tuesday,
September 25, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. in Assembly Hall, Campus Center, on the
University at Albany’s uptown campus. Earlier that same day at
4:15 p.m. the author will present an informal seminar in the same location.
The events are sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and
UAlbany’s Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies Department,
and are free and open to the public.
PROFILE
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Paterson, New
Jersey, Judith Ortiz Cofer is an award-winning poet, essayist, and novelist.
Her work explores the experience of being Puerto Rican and living in the
United States. The “New York Times Book Review” has acclaimed
Cofer as “a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important
story to tell.”
Cofer’s first novel, "The Line of the Sun” (1989), was
a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was named a New York Public Library
Outstanding Book of the Year. The novel traces the experiences of a family
that emigrates from a poor Puerto Rican village to a tenement neighborhood
in Paterson, New Jersey. Writing in the “New York Times,” Roberto
Marquez praised the book for the “vigorous elegance” of its
language, and called Cofer “a prose writer of evocatively lyrical
authority, a novelist of historical compass and sensitivity.”
Cofer’s second novel, “The Meaning of Consuelo” (2003),
tells the coming-of-age story of a Puerto Rican girl living in the suburbs
of San Juan in the 1950s. A bookish adolescent, Consuelo must face the
challenges posed by her parents’ crumbling marriage and her younger
sister’s descent into mental illness. In a starred review, “Booklist” said, “Cofer
combines the timeless clarity and moral imperative of folktales with the
timely wit of keen social criticism in an absorbing portrait of a smart
and compassionate young woman....”
Cofer is also the author of “Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming
a Writer” (2000), an autobiographical collection of essays, interwoven
with poetry and folklore, and replete with wisdom for aspiring writers.
The “Library Journal” reviewer said, “Cofer writes with
conviction and power....”
Her most recent book is a young adult novel about the Puerto Rican-American
immigrant experience, “Call Me Maria” (2006). Maria’s
father has taken her to live in a cramped basement apartment in New York,
while her mother remains behind in Puerto Rico. “School Library Journal” said, “Understated
but with a brilliant combination of all the right words to convey events,
Cofer aptly relates the complexities of Maria’s two homes, her parents’ lives,
and the difficulty of her choice between them.”
Cofer’s other books include the essay collection, “Silent Dancing” (1990),
a New York Public Library Outstanding Book of the Year and winner of the
PEN/Martha Albrand Special Citation; the prose and poetry collection, “The
Latin Deli” (1993), winner of the Anisfield Wolf Award in Race Relations;
and the short story collection, “An Island Like You: Stories of the
Barrio” (1995), a Best Book of the Year of the American Library
Association.