Cisneros, Sandra

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her novel The House on Mango Street is required reading in middle schools, high schools, and universities across the country and has sold more than six million copies. Her awards include NEA fellowships in poetry and fiction, a MacArthur fellowship, the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts. Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo (Vintage, dual-language edition) tells the story of Corina, who left her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in the cafés of Paris. Instead, she spent her brief time there running out of money and lining up with other immigrants to call home from a broken pay phone. But the months of befriending panhandling artists in the métro, sleeping on crowded floors, and dancing tango at underground parties are bathed in a certain glow, because of her intense friendships with Martita and Paola. Over the years the women have dispersed to different continents, falling out of touch and out of mind – until a rediscovered letter brings Corina’s days in Paris back with breathtaking immediacy. Publishers Weekly noted that Cisneros’ “language and rhythm of her prose reverberate with Corina’s longing for her youth and unfulfilled promise. The author’s fans will treasure this.”