Get to know Judith

              

              Judith Ortíz Cofer was born February 24, 1952 in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Her father was in the Navy so she used to come back and forth between Paterson, New Jersey and her homeland. In her first years she lived with her aunt, her father’s sister and her grandmother, her father’s mother. The first time her family moved to Patterson, New Jersey she lived in el Building, where most of the person who lived there where Puerto Ricans. When she moved back to Puerto Rico she, her brother and mother stayed at Mama’s house, her mother’s mom. Mama is said to be the inspiration for Judith’s writing. With her storytelling in the summer’s afternoon Mama was able to provoke an uncontrollable desire for words in her granddaughter. Finally in 1967, when Judith was fifteen her family settled in Augusta, Georgia.

             “She received her B.A. in English from Augusta College in 1974, and her M.A. in English from Florida Atlantic University, and did graduate work at Oxford University in 1977”. (The Academy of American Poets) Ortiz Cofer became the author of essays, fiction, prose, and unforgettable books. She wrote the book An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio in 1996 which received the distinctions: The American Library Association Reforma Pura Belpre Medal and the Fanfare Best Book of the Year award.

Judith Ortiz Cofer has received various awards and honors. For example she received “grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for poetry, the University of Georgia Humanities Center, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Florida Fine Arts Council, and the Janet Rice Memorial Fellowship from Florida Atlantic University.” (TAAP) She is currently the Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia, and an associate staff member of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. “In 2010, Ortiz Cofer was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame” (Poetry Foundation).

                Judith Ortiz Cofer’s work takes you through a fantastic path where you will find yourself exploring the rifts and gasps in her live, product of her cultural heritages. Currently she is a professor at the University of Georgia where she teaches English and Creative Writing.