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Sandra Cisneros

Biography

Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer and artist. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, national and international book awards, including the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts. More recently, she received the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized with the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and won the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two nonprofits she founded: the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. As a single woman, she made the choice to have books instead of children. A citizen of both the United States and Mexico, Cisneros currently lives in San Miguel de Allende and makes her living by her pen.

Sandra Cisneros

Books by Sandra Cisneros

A House of My Own: Stories from My Life
by Sandra Cisneros - Essays, Memoir, Nonfiction

From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET to her abode in Mexico in a region where “my ancestors lived for centuries,” the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection --- spanning three decades and including never-before-published work --- Cisneros has come home at last.

Caramelo
by Sandra Cisneros - Fiction

Every year, Ceyala "Lala" Reyes' family--aunts, uncles, mothers, fathers, and Lala's six older brothers--packs up three cars and, in a wild ride, drive from Chicago to the Little Grandfather and Awful Grandmother's house in Mexico City for the summer. Struggling to find a voice above the boom of her brothers and to understand her place on this side of the border and that, Lala is a shrewd observer of family life. But when she starts telling the Awful Grandmother's life story, seeking clues to how she got to be so awful, grandmother accuses Lala of exaggerating. Soon, a multigenerational family narrative turns into a whirlwind exploration of storytelling, lies, and life. Like the cherished rebozo, or shawl, that has been passed down through generations of Reyes women, Caramelo is alive with the vibrations of history, family, and love.

The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros - Fiction

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET is one of the most cherished novels of the last 50 years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting." Told in a series of vignettes --- sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous --- Sandra Cisneros’ masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’ MAIN STREET or Toni Morrison’s SULA, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct.

More books by Sandra Cisneros »