Lorna Dee Cervantes facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lorna Dee Cervantes
Born	August 6, 1954 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	Poet, philosopher, publisher, editor, professor
Alma mater	San Jose State University UC Santa Cruz
Notable works	From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger; Emplumada
Notable awards	American Book Award, NEA Fellowship, Pushcart Prize
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Lorna Dee Cervantes (born August 6, 1954) is an American poet and activist. She is known as one of the most important figures in Chicano poetry. A famous poet named Alurista once called her "probably the best Chicana poet active today."

Early Life and Inspiration

Lorna Dee Cervantes was born in 1954 in the Mission District of San Francisco. Her family has roots in both Mexican and Chumash cultures. When she was five, her parents divorced. She then grew up in San Jose with her mother, grandmother, and brother.

Her parents wanted her and her brother to speak only English at home. This was to help them avoid the racism that was common in their community at the time. However, not speaking Spanish made Lorna feel like she had lost a part of her heritage. This struggle to find her true identity later became a big inspiration for her poetry.

She went to Abraham Lincoln High School. Later, she earned a degree from San Jose Community College in 1976. She also got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Arts from San José State University in 1984. She continued her studies at UC Santa Cruz from 1984 to 1988.

Becoming a Poet and Activist

Lorna's brother, Stephen, worked at a local library. Through him, she discovered famous poets like Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, and Byron. These poets greatly influenced her own dream of becoming a writer. By the time she was fifteen, she had already written her first collection of poems.

In 1974, Lorna traveled to Mexico City with her brother. He was performing with a theater group. At the last minute, Lorna was asked to read some of her own poetry. She chose a part of her poem "Refugee Ship." This poem talks about the challenge of being Chicanx, which means feeling caught between two cultures. Her reading got a lot of attention and was even featured in a Mexican newspaper. This poem was later included in her first award-winning book, Emplumada (1981).

Lorna Dee Cervantes sees herself as "a Chicana writer, a feminist writer, a political writer." Her poetry collections are highly respected. These include Emplumada, From the Cables of Genocide, Drive: The First Quartet, Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems, and Sueño: New Poems. These books have won many awards and nominations.

Helping Other Writers

Lorna believes that writing and publishing helped her. She wanted to give that same gift to others. She hoped that young Chicana readers, like herself, would find her books and feel a connection. She wanted her poetry to be easy to understand and to help bridge the "literacy gap."

In the 1970s, Lorna was very active in publishing other Chicana/o writers. She started her own literary magazine called MANGO. This magazine was the first to publish many well-known writers. Some of these include Sandra Cisneros, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and Gary Soto.

Her Impact and Recognition

Lorna Dee Cervantes has given many poetry readings, workshops, and guest lectures across the United States. She was also a part of the Librotraficante Movement. This movement happened in 2012 when books about Mexican American studies were removed from classrooms in Arizona. The Librotraficante Caravan aimed to bring these books back to students. Lorna gave a powerful speech to supporters of the movement in March 2012.

In May 2012, she was one of seven featured writers at the American Literature Association Conference in San Francisco. Her book, Ciento: 100 100 Word Love Poems, was nominated for a Northern California Book Award that same year.

Her fifth collection, Sueño, was published in 2013. It was nominated for the Latin American Book Award in poetry in 2014. The book was also launched in Europe at University College Cork, Ireland, in June 2014.

Lorna has held many teaching positions. She was an instructor at UC Santa Cruz and an Associate Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She has also given over 500 poetry readings and lectures at top universities like Yale, Stanford, and Harvard.

Published Books

• Sueño: New Poems (2013)
• Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems (2011)
• DRIVE: The First Quartet. (2006)
• From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger (1991)
• Emplumada (1981)

She also helped edit other publications:

• Red Dirt (a cross-cultural poetry journal)
• Mango (a literary review she founded)
• Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry (1994)
• No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Women Poets (1993)
• After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties (1992)

Awards and Honors

Lorna Dee Cervantes has received many awards for her work, including:

• Patterson Prize For Poetry
• Latino Literature Prize
• Battrick Award For Poetry
• Latino Book Award
• Latin American Book Award (Second Place)
• Denver Book Award (Finalist)
• Pushcart Prize (twice)
• California Arts Council Grant for Poetry (twice)
• Hudson D. Walker Fellowship Award at The Fine Arts Work Center
• Colorado Poet Laureate (Finalist)
• Vassar Visiting Writers Award
• Mexican-American Studies Center Visiting Scholar Award
• The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar Award
• San Jose State University Outstanding Alumnus
• San Jose Community College Outstanding Alumnus
• Invited to The White House Third Millennium Evening with Poets Laureate (as one of the best 100 poets in The United States)
• Library of Congress Reading (twice)
• American Book Award (1982)
• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grants for Poetry (1979 and 1989)
• Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Foundation Writer's Award (1995)

See also

• List of Mexican American writers
• List of writers from peoples Indigenous to the Americas
• Latino poetry
• Latino Literature