Judith Ortiz Cofer

La nina seria, the serious child. That’s how Consuelo’s mother has cast her pensive, book-loving daughter, while Consuelo’s younger sister, Mili, is seen as vivacious—a ray of tropical sunshine. Two daughters: one dark, one light; one to offer comfort and consolation, the other to charm and delight. But something is not right in this Puerto Rican family. Coming of age when American influence threatens to dilute the island’s traditional Spanish customs as well as to harm, perhaps irreparably, its fragile ecology, Consuelo watches her family and culture being torn asunder—much like the island itself. “A bittersweet tale of the price one pays to reinvent the story handed down by one’s antepasados and familia. Consuelo is both herself and every mujer, and her story her own and that of her island, torn between self-discovery and safety.” —Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

The Meaning of Consuelo

Cofer Ortiz

Recipient of The New York Public Library's 1991 Best Book for the Teen Age, a PEN citation, Martha Albrand Award for non-fiction and a Pushcart Prize.

A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood

Silent Dancing

Prose and poetry of a particular immigrant experience and also of such universal themes as the pains, confusions, and wonders of growing up.

Prose and Poetry

The Latin Deli

"The Cruel Country is a memoir centered around the author's journey to Puerto Rico after her mother had been diagnosed with late stage lung cancer. The story takes us through Cofer's journey as she sits by the her mother's hospital bed during the last moments of her life, through the grieving process and Catholic funereal rites that follow her mother's death and her return to her life in the U.S. Cofer's writerly talents richly inform this narrative meditation on her family's life in Puerto Rico and the States, her frantic research on cancer, considerations of Catholicism, family, and culture , and much more. The book at the same time is very much a study of cultural differences and the balance that the author must find as a Puerto-Rican American, not wholly part of her mother's culture. We see this come to a head as she communicates with doctors, participates in funeral arrangements and sacraments, and recollects her Anglo husband John's father's death. This very personal story about the author's life will resonate with Cofer's legions of fans including students and those interested in memoir, ethnic and cultural crossings, spirituality, loss, grief, and reconciliation"--

The Cruel Country

Twelve stories about young people caught between their Puerto Rican heritage and their American surroundings.

Stories of the Barrio

An Island Like You

A collection of short stories, essays, and poems explores the larger truths about life and living by examining the lives of Puerto Ricans in a New Jersey barrio

In this collection of essays woven with poems and folklore, Judith Ortiz Cofer tells the story of how she became a poet and writer and explores her love of words, her discovery of the magic of language, and her struggle to carve out time to practice her art. A native of Puerto Rico, Cofer came to the mainland as a child. Torn between two cultures and two languages, she learned early the power of words and how to wield them. She discovered her love for the subtleties, sounds, and rhythms of the written word when a Roman Catholic nun and teacher bent on changing traditions for the better gave her books of high literature to read, some of which were forbidden by the church. Later, as an adult, demands from her family and her profession made it difficult for Cofer to find time to devote to her art, but her need and determination to express herself led to solutions that can help all artists challenged with the limits of time. Cofer recalls the family cuentos, or stories, that inspire her and shows how they speak to all artists, all women, all people. She encourages her readers to insist on the right to be themselves and to pursue their passions. A book that entertains, instructs, and enthralls, Woman in Front of the Sun will be invaluable to students of poetry and creative nonfiction and will be a staple in every creative writing classroom as well as an inspiration to all those who write.

On Becoming a Writer

Woman in Front of the Sun

Reviewing her novel, The Line of the Sun, the New York Times Book Review hailed Judith Ortiz Cofer as "a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell." Those gifts are on abundant display in The Latin Deli, an evocative collection of poetry, personal essays, and short fiction in which the dominant subject—the lives of Puerto Ricans in a New Jersey barrio—is drawn from the author's own childhood. Following the directive of Emily Dickinson to "tell all the Truth but tell it slant," Cofer approaches her material from a variety of angles. An acute yearning for a distant homeland is the poignant theme of the title poem, which opens the collection. Cofer's lines introduce us "to a woman of no-age" presiding over a small store whose wares—Bustelo coffee, jamon y queso, "green plantains hanging in stalks like votive offerings"—must satisfy, however imperfectly, the needs and hungers of those who have left the islands for the urban Northeast. Similarly affecting is the short story "Nada," in which a mother's grief over a son killed in Vietnam gradually consumes her. Refusing the medals and flag proferred by the government ("Tell the Mr. President of the United States what I say: No, gracias."), as well as the consolations of her neighbors in El Building, the woman begins to give away all her possessions The narrator, upon hearing the woman say "nada," reflects, "I tell you, that word is like a drain that sucks everything down." As rooted as they are in a particular immigrant experience, Cofer's writings are also rich in universal themes, especially those involving the pains, confusions, and wonders of growing up. While set in the barrio, the essays "American History," "Not for Sale," and "The Paterson Public Library" deal with concerns that could be those of any sensitive young woman coming of age in America: romantic attachments, relations with parents and peers, the search for knowledge. And in poems such as "The Life of an Echo" and "The Purpose of Nuns," Cofer offers eloquent ruminations on the mystery of desire and the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Cofer's ambitions as a writer are perhaps stated most explicitly in the essay "The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria." Recalling one of her early poems, she notes how its message is still her mission: to transcend the limitations of language, to connect "through the human-to-human channel of art."

"There seemed to be no way out of the custom. Her arguments were always the same and always turned into pleas. 'But, Ama', it's embarrassing. I'm too old for that. I'm an adult, '" Naomi says in Helena Maria Viramontes' story Growing. Ever since Naomi hit high school and puberty, she began to notice that there were too many expectations, and no one instructed her on how to fulfill them." In her tradition-bound family and under the thundering gaze of her father, Naomi struggles to stretch the limitations imposed on her by her family, even as her mind expands along with her changing body. Like Growing, the pieces in this anthology for young adults reveal the struggles of discovering a new self and the trials of leaving behind an old one. This extraordinary collection gathers a wealth of stories and poems that explore the challenges of negotiating identity and relationships with others, struggling with authority, learning to love oneself and challenging the roles society demands of teenagers and adults. Edited by well-known poet and prose-writer Judith Ortiz Cofer, the collection includes work by such leading Latino writers as Pat Mora, Jesus Salvador Trevino, Tomas Rivera, Virgil Suarez, Jose Marti, Viramontes and Ortiz Cofer herself. Included as well are new voices that represent the freshness and vigor of youth: Mike Padilla, Daniel Chacon, and Sarah Cortez. For many students across the United States, this text will serve as their first rewarding introduction to diverse writers of Latino/Latina literature. This beautiful collection gathers a wealth of stories and poems that are studded with the challenges of negotiating identity and learning to love the bodies and worlds in which young adults find themselves. Edited by well-known poet and prose writer Judith Ortiz Cofer, the collection includes work by Pat Mora, Nicholasa Mohr, Tomas Rivera, and Virgil Suarez.

Riding Low on the Streets Gold: Latino Literature for Young Adults

Judith Ortiz Cofer's Pura Belpré award-winning collection of short stories about life in the barrio! Rita is exiled to Puerto Rico for a summer with her grandparents after her parents catch her with a boy. Luis sits atop a six-foot mountain of hubcaps in his father's junkyard, working off a sentence for breaking and entering. Sandra tries to reconcile her looks to the conventional Latino notion of beauty. And Arturo, different from his macho classmates, fantasizes about escaping his community. They are the teenagers of the barrio -- and this is their world.

A new novel from the award-winning author of AN ISLAND LIKE YOU, winner of the Pura Belpre Award.Maria is a girl caught between two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was born, and New York, where she now lives in a basement apartment in the barrio. While her mother remains on the island, Maria lives with her father, the super of their building. As she struggles to lose her island accent, Maria does her best to find her place within the unfamiliar culture of the barrio. Finally, with the Spanglish of the barrio people ringing in her ears, she finds the poet within herself. In lush prose and spare, evocative poetry, Cofer weaves a powerful novel, bursting with life and hope.

First Person Fiction: Call Me Maria

A cultural legacy and a woman's desire "to be released from rituals" -- these are the terms that Cofer confronts in her poetic dialectic of survival. Cultural icons, customs and rites of passage take root in an imagery that is lush, tropical and piercing. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Poems

Terms of Survival

Marilyn Kallet

How do women writers cope with changes and juggle the demands in their already full lives to make time for their lives as artists? In this anthology, noted female novelists, journalists, essayists, poets, and nonfiction writers address the old and new challenges of "doing it all" that face women writers as the twenty-first century approaches. With eloquence, sensitivity, and more than a touch of wry humor, Sleeping with One Eye Open relates positive stories from women who lead effective lives as artists, emphasizing how sources of inspiration, discipline, resourcefulness, and determination help them succeed despite the obstacle of "no time." The title essay, Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Woman Who Slept with One Eye Open," defines the collection. Cofer relates the ways in which a mythological story from her Puerto Rican culture gave her confidence and courage, encouraging her creative success and emphasizing the rewards of "women's power" and personal strength. Denise Levertov's "The Vital Necessity" urges poets to make time for daydreams--essential, empowering creative food. Tillie Olsen offers a frank discussion of the pressures of work and expectations that too often sap creative energy. Tess Gallagher connects her mother's creative gardening with her own inspiration as a poet and the need for growth in her writing. Marilyn Kallet's interview with Lucille Clifton relates the personal strength that helped Clifton raise six children and publish her first book at the same time. This affirming collection offers a wealth of writing advice, given through honest accounts of perseverance and accomplishment.

Women Writers and the Art of Survival

Sleeping with One Eye Open

A collection of poems, short stories, and essays address the theme of straddling two cultures as do the offspring of Hispanic parents living in the United States.

Cuentos y Poemas

El Ano de Nuestra Revolucion

“I am learning the alchemy of grief—how it must be carefully measured and doled out, inflicted—but I have not yet mastered this art,” writes Judith Ortiz Cofer in The Cruel Country. This richly textured, deeply moving, and lyrical memoir centers on Cofer's return to her native Puerto Rico after her mother has been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. Cofer's work has always drawn strength from her life's contradictions and dualities, such as the necessities and demands of both English and Spanish, her travels between and within various mainland and island subcultures, and the challenges of being a Latina living in the U.S. South. Interlaced with these far-from-common tensions are dualities we all share: our lives as both sacred and profane, our negotiation of both child and adult roles, our desires to be the person who belongs and also the person who is different. What we discover in The Cruel Country is how much Cofer has heretofore held back in her vivid and compelling writing. This journey to her mother's deathbed has released her to tell the truth within the truth. She arrives at her mother's bedside as a daughter overcome by grief, but she navigates this cruel country as a writer—an acute observer of detail, a relentless and insistent questioner.

Amitav Ghosh

E. Kristin Anderson

Peter LaSalle

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Gary Soto

Christopher Buckley

Brian Swann

Deborah Brown

George Calvin Waldrep

Lyn Lifshin

Lee Upton

Marcia Aldrich

Toni Graham

Jennifer Moss

Kat Meads

John Marvin

Fani Papageorgiou

Elaine Terranova

Chard DeNiord

Donna Pucciani

Andy Fitch

Rachel Hadas

Li Dong

Rebecca A. Eckland

Margaret Gilbert

Wendell Mayo

Marilyn Abildskov

Keith Althaus

Priscilla Atkins

Tina Barr

Craig Blais

Laurel Blossom

Patricia Corbus

John Randolph Carter

Lainey S. Cronk

Kelly Daniels

Kallie Falandays

Deborah Flanagan

Jeff Friedman

Mary Gilliland

Benjamin Goodney

Charles Harper Webb

Brent House

Panayotis Loannidis

Mark Jacobs

Sarah Kruse

Rebecca Lilly

William Luvaas

John McKernan

Christopher Merkner

Roger Mitchell

Bill Rector

Peter Schireson

Darrell Spencer

Steven J. Stewart

Sarah Melhado White

Wong Yoo-Chong

volume 13

Hotel Amerika

Semi-autobiographical poems in English about life as a Cuban American, women's experiences, and related topics explore the role of language in identity.

A Love Story Beginning in Spanish

“A colorful, revealing portrait of Puerto Rican culture and domestic relationship” from the award-winning poet and author of An Island Like You (Publishers Weekly). Set in the 1950s and 1960s, The Line of the Sun moves from a rural Puerto Rican village to a tough immigrant housing project in New Jersey, telling the story of a Hispanic family’s struggle to become part of a new culture without relinquishing the old. At the story’s center is Guzmán, an almost mythic figure whose adventures and exile, salvation and return leave him a broken man but preserve his place in the heart and imagination of his niece, who is his secret biographer. “Cofer . . . reveals herself to be a prose writer of evocatively lyrical authority, a novelist of historical compass and sensitivity . . . One recognizes in the rich weave and vigorous elegance of the language of The Line of the Sun a writer of authentic gifts, with a genuine and important story to tell.”—The New York Times Book Review “There is great strength in the way Cofer evokes the fierce, loving, and brave Latin spirit that is the novel’s real theme.”—Joyce Johnson, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author “The Line of the Sun reads like a dream, from the beautifully realized description of the deceptive Paradise Lost, to the utterly different but equally vivid world of the urban North . . . This is a splendid first novel.”—The State (Columbia, South Carolina) “The writing in this superb novel stuns and surprises at every turn. Its sensuality and imagery . . . are riveting.”—The San Juan Star

A Novel

The Line of the Sun

When a poet moves into the apartment above hers, young Juliana asks to meet her and together they write poems of tropical birds and a river that flows to the sea, typing out words that change the world, if only for a while.

The Poet Upstairs

Judith Ortiz Cofer

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