Things that give your writing power

“The nice thing about writing a novel is you take your time, you sit with the character sometimes nine years, you look very deeply at a situation, unlike in real life when we just kind of snap something out.” – Sandra Cisneros

Born on this date in 1954, Cisneros – whose name means Hope in English – is a Mexican-American writer best known for her novel The House on Mango Street and short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.

“One press account said I was an overnight success. I thought that was the longest night I've ever spent,” she said after spending many years developing House on Mango Street while working as a teacher, counselor, college recruiter, and poet-in-the-schools.

Now the recipient of numerous writing awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, she was named for one of 25 new Ford Foundation “Art of Change” Fellowships in 2017.           A key figure in today’s Chicana literature movement, she has maintained a strong commitment to community and literary causes, including assisting up-and-coming Latina writers.

“I am a woman, and I am a Latina,” she said.  “Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power.”

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