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 ...: Poems on Love and Hunger; Emplumada
Notable awards	American Book Award, NEA Fellowship, Pushcart Prize
Literature portal

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

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

Her parents made sure she and her brother only spoke English at home. This was to help them avoid the unfair treatment (racism) that was common in their community back then. Later in life, this experience of losing her family's language and trying to find her true identity became a big inspiration for her poetry.

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

Becoming a Poet

Lorna Dee Cervantes'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 dream of becoming a writer. By the time she was fifteen, she had already written her first collection of poems.

In 1974, she 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, feeling caught between two cultures. Her reading got a lot of attention. It was even featured in a Mexican newspaper and other magazines. This poem was later included in her first award-winning book, Emplumada (1981).

Her Work and Impact

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 ...: Poems on Love and Hunger, Drive: The First Quartet, Ciento: 100 100-Word Love Poems, and Sueño: New Poems. Many of these books have won awards.

Lorna Dee Cervantes wanted her poetry to be easy for everyone to understand. She hoped that young Chicana readers, like she once was, would find her books. She wanted them to feel connected and inspired, just as she felt when she discovered poetry by African-American women.

She also played a big role in helping other writers. In the 1970s, she started her own literary magazine called MANGO. This magazine was the first to publish many talented Chicana/o writers. She helped share their voices with the world.

Cervantes has given many poetry readings and workshops across the United States. She was also part of the Librotraficante Movement. This movement worked to bring books back to students in Arizona. These books had been removed from classrooms because of a new law. In March 2012, Cervantes gave a powerful speech to supporters of this movement.

Her book Ciento: 100 100 Word Love Poems was nominated for an award in 2012. Her fifth collection, Sueño, published in 2013, was also nominated for the Latin American Book Award in 2014.

Career Highlights

Lorna Dee Cervantes has held many important positions:

• Instructor at UC Santa Cruz (1985–1986)
• Associate Professor of English at the University of Colorado at Boulder (1988–2007)
• Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston (1994–1995)
• Ethnic Studies Lecturer at San Francisco State University (2006–2007)
• Independent Scholar, Poet, and Philosopher in the San Francisco Bay Area (2007–Present)
• UC Regents Lecturer at UC Berkeley (2011–2012)

She has given over 500 poetry readings and lectures at many top universities. These include Yale, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton.

Published Books

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

She also helped edit and found literary journals:

• Red Dirt (co-editor)
• Mango (founder)

Her work has been included in many poetry collections:

• 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 Recognition

Lorna Dee Cervantes has received many awards for her poetry and contributions:

• 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
• 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 by President and Hillary Clinton (as one of the best 100 poets in the U.S.)
• 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