Judith Ortiz Cofer
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Judith Ortiz Cofer (born Judith Ortiz in 1952 in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico), is an acclaimed Puerto Rican author. Her works span a range of literary genres including poetry, short stories, autobiography, essays, and Young Adult novels.
Cofer came to the United States in 1956 when her family moved to Paterson, New Jersey, though her family often made back-and-forth trips between Paterson and Hormigueros. In 1967, her family moved to Augusta, Georgia, where she attended high school. Cofer received a B.A. in English from Augusta College, and later an M.A. in English from Florida Atlantic University.
Cofer's work can largely be classified as creative nonfiction. Her narrative style is strongly influenced by oral storytelling, which was inspired by her grandmother, an able storyteller in the tradition of teaching through storytelling among Puerto Rican women. Cofer's autobiographical work often focuses on her attempts at negotiating her life between two cultures, American and Puerto Rican, and how this process informs her sensibilities as a writer. Her work also explores such subjects as racism and sexism in American culture, machismo and female empowerment in Puerto Rican culture, and the challenges diasporic immigrants face in a new culture.
Cofer's published books include:
- Peregrina (1986)
- Terms of Survival (1987)
- The Line of the Sun (1989)
- Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (1990)
- The Latin Deli (1993)
- Reaching for the Mainland and Selected New Poems (1995)
- An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio (1996)
- The Year of Our Revolution (1998)
- Sleeping with One Eye Open: Women Writers and the Art of Survival (1999)
- Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming A Writer (2000)
- The Meaning of Consuelo (2003)
- Call Me Maria (2004).
In 2005 she published her most recent book, A Love Story Beginning in Spanish: Poems. Among Cofer's more well known essays are "The Story of My Body" and "The Myth of the Latin Woman," both reprinted in The Latin Deli.
In 1984 she joined the faculty of the University of Georgia, where she is currently Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing.
