Deborah A. Miranda facts for kids

Deborah A. Miranda is an American writer, poet, and professor. She is known for her books and poems that explore her Native American heritage and history.

Early Life and Education

Deborah Miranda was born in Los Angeles, California. She first went to Wheelock College to study how to teach children with special needs.

Later, she decided to focus on English literature. She earned her Master's degree and Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington.

Career as a Writer and Professor

After finishing her education, Miranda became a professor of English at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. There, she taught creative writing classes. Her main research interest was Native American culture.

In her work, Miranda looks at how American history has often ignored or silenced the stories of Native people. She also writes about other groups who have been treated unfairly, such as Chicanos, African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Chinese Americans.

In 2012, Miranda received a special grant for a project about the hidden stories of California's Native people. In 2015, she won a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for her writing.

Miranda also has a blog and a Twitter account called "BAD NDNS," where she writes about her life and work.

Important Books and Writings

Miranda has written several important books and many poems. Her work often tells stories about her family, her culture, and the history of Native Americans in California.

Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

One of Miranda's most famous books is Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir, published in 2013. In this book, she tells the story of her people, the Esselen Nation, and other California Indians.

The book is a mix of her own family's stories, historical documents, and old news articles. By combining these, she shows the hardships Native people in California have faced over many years. It gives a powerful look at the lasting effects of this difficult history.

Other Works

In 2017, Miranda helped edit a collection of literature called Sovereign .... This book brought together works by writers who are reclaiming the histories of different gender identities within Native cultures that were often erased by outsiders.

Some of her other major books include:

• The Zen of La Llorona (2005)
• Indian Cartography (1999)
• Altar to Broken Things (2020)
• Raised By Humans (2015)

Poetry and Essays

Miranda's poetry appears in many collections. She also writes essays about important topics like racism, identity, and the environment. Her essays often explore the challenges that come from differences in culture and language.

Personal Heritage

Miranda is a descendant of "Mission Indians." This term refers to the Native people from many Southern California tribes who were forced by Spanish priests to leave their homes and live in religious settlements called missions.

She is a member of the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation. This is a tribal group that is not officially recognized by the U.S. federal government. Miranda describes her background as a mix of cultures. Her father was from the Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen Nation and also had Santa Ynez Chumash family history. Her mother was of English, French, and Jewish heritage.

See also

In Spanish: Deborah Miranda para niños