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Margarita Engle
Engle in 2014
Engle in 2014
Born (1951-09-02) September 2, 1951 (age 73)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Education California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (BS)
Iowa State University (MS)
University of California, Riverside

Margarita Engle (born on September 2, 1951, in Los Angeles, California) is an amazing Cuban American poet and author. She has written many award-winning books for children, young adults, and grown-ups. Most of Margarita's stories are written in a special style called verse, which is like poetry. Her books often share her Cuban background and her love for nature.

In 2009, she became the first Latino writer to receive a Newbery Honor for her book The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom. From 2017 to 2019, she was chosen by the Poetry Foundation to be the sixth Young People's Poet Laureate. Margarita Engle also won the 2019 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature. Her 2024 book, Wild Dreamers, was considered for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Early Life and Inspiration

Margarita Engle's father was born in California, and her mother was from Trinidad, Cuba. Even though Margarita grew up in California, she spent many summers in Cuba with her family. This helped her connect with her Cuban heritage. As a child, she discovered a love for poetry, especially the works of a famous Cuban poet named José Martí.

Becoming a Writer

Margarita Engle studied science in college. She earned a bachelor's degree from California State Polytechnic University in 1974. Then, she got a master's degree from Iowa State University in 1977. She almost finished a doctoral degree in biology from the University of California, Riverside in 1983.

Before she became a full-time writer, Margarita was a professor of agronomy (the science of soil and crops). While working on her doctoral degree, she took a creative writing class. This class made her realize how much she loved to write. Today, she lives in Central California. She enjoys helping her husband with his volunteer work, training search and rescue dogs.

Awards and Recognitions

Margarita Engle has received many important awards for her books. These awards celebrate her unique writing style and the important stories she tells.

Awards for Her Entire Work

Awards for Specific Books

Selected Works

Here are some of Margarita Engle's published books:

  • "Archetype"; "Memory"; "Variations on a Theme", Terrain.org
  • Singing to Cuba, Arte Publico Press, 1993, ISBN: 978-1-55885-070-5
  • Skywriting, Bantam Books, 1995, ISBN: 978-0-553-09987-4
  • The Poet Slave of Cuba, a Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano (Henry Holt & Co., 2006) ISBN: 978-0-8050-7706-3
  • The Surrender Tree (Holt, 2008) ISBN: 978-0-8050-8674-4
  • Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, Macmillan, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-8050-8936-3
  • The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba, Henry Holt & Co., 2010, ISBN: 978-0-8050-9082-6
  • Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian, Henry Holt & Co., 2010, ISBN: 978-0-8050-8937-0
  • Hurricane Dancers The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck, Henry Holt & Co., 2011, ISBN: 978-0-8050-9240-0
  • The Wild Book, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, ISBN: 978-0-547-58131-6
  • When You Wander, Henry Holt and Co., 2013, ISBN: 9780805093124
  • The Lightning Dreamer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 201, ISBN: 9780547807430
  • Mountain Dog, Henry Holt and Co., 2013, ISBN: 978-0805095166
  • Orangutanka: A Story in Poems, Henry Holt and Co., 2015, ISBN: 978-0-8050-9839-6
  • Drum Dream Girl, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015,
  • Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir, Simon and Schuster, 2015,
  • Lion Island: Cuba's Warrior of Words, Simon and Schuster, 2017 ISBN: 9781481461122
  • Dreams from Many Rivers, Henry Holt and Co., 2019 ISBN: 9781627795319
  • Jazz Owls: A Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019 ISBN: 1534409440

See also

  • Cuban American literature
  • List of Cuban-American writers
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