Pat Mora joins the Festival in cooperation with the Utah Council of Teachers of English / Language Arts.
“I enjoy writing for both children and adults,” says Pat Mora, award-winning author of over thirty children’s books. She’s excited about her upcoming book of haiku, Yum! ¡Mmm! Qué rico! Other recent books for children are ¡Marimba! Animales A-Z, and Doña Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart, an ALA Notable which received a Pura Belpré Author Honor Award and a Golden Kite Award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Her recent poetry books for adults are Adobe Odes and Agua Santa: Holy Water. Pat is a popular national speaker shaped by the U.S.-Mexico border where she was born and spent much of her life. She speaks often at conferences, universities, and schools about her books, writing, family literacy, and leadership. She received an Honorary Doctorate in Letters from SUNY Buffalo in 2006. Among her other awards are the 2006 National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award and a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship to write in Umbria, Italy. Pat was also a Visiting Carruthers Chair at the University of New Mexico, a recipient and judge of the Poetry Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a recipient and advisor of the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowships. A former consultant, museum director, university administrator and teacher, Pat is the mother of three adult children. She enjoys family/friend time, reading, and the wonder of the natural world when she travels and when she returns to her home in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bio for Adult Books “Ms. Mora’s poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes,” wrote The New York Times of Agua Santa: Holy Water, Pat’s collection to be reprinted this fall by The University of Arizona Press. Last year Tucson Weekly Wrote that her sixth collection, Adobe Odes, also published by the University of Arizona Press, “turns its back on hopelessness and finds a way to delight in our everyday world of food, literature, nature, religion and yes, people.” Her other poetry collections include Aunt Carmen’s Book of Practical Saints, Communion, Borders, and Chants. Pat is also the author of Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle and House of Houses. The Washington Post described this acclaimed memoir as a “textual feast . . . a regenerative act . . . and an eloquent bearer of the old truth that it is through the senses that we apprehend love.” Pat received an Honorary Doctorate in Letters from SUNY Buffalo in 2006. Among her other awards are the 2006 National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award and a 2003 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship to write in Umbria, Italy. She was a Visiting Carruthers Chair at the University of New Mexico, a recipient and judge of the Poetry Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a recipient and advisor of the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowships. Pat has written more than thirty award-winning children’s books. Upcoming is a book of food haiku, Yum! ¡Mmm! Qué rico! She is the founder of the family literacy initiative El día de los niños / El día de los libros, Children’s Day / Book Day (Día), now housed at the American Library Association. The year-long commitment of linking all children to books, languages and cultures, of sharing what Pat calls “bookjoy,” culminates in celebrations across the country on April 30th. Pat is a popular national speaker shaped by the U.S.-Mexico border where she was born and spent most of her life. She is the mother of three grown children and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For more information, see: www.patmora.com |
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Pat Mora - Bio for Children's Books