Lucha Corpi

Last updated

Lucha Corpi is a Chicana poet and mystery writer. She was born on April 13, 1945, in Jaltipan, Veracruz, Mexico. [1] In 1975 she earned a B.A. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley. [1] [2] In 1979 she earned a M.A. in comparative literature from San Francisco State University. [1] [3] Corpi's most important contribution to Chicano literature, a series of four poems called "The Marina Poems ," appeared in the anthology The Other Voice: Twentieth-Century Women's Poetry in Translation, which was published by W. W. Norton & Company, in 1976 ( ISBN   9780393044218). [1] [3] [4]

Contents

She tends to write her short stories in English and her poems in Spanish. [5]

Personal life and career

Corpi's family was from the southern part of Veracruz. Her paternal grandparents were Italian, Hispanic with Native American ancestry; of her maternal grandparents, one was surnamed Constantino and the other was three-quarters Mexican. [5] Her family insisted she and her six sisters and two brothers all be educated. Her elder brother would not attend school without her, which explanation led to an agreement with the school allowing her to sit in the back of the classroom. [5]

In 1964 she married Guillermo Hernández and they immigrated to the United States so that he could study at the University of California at Berkeley. [2] [6] They divorced in 1970 and she started taking classes at the University of California at Berkeley where she got her BA in comparative literature. [2] [6]

In 1969, divorced and with a small child, she began writing poetry; her first publication was in a Norton anthology, followed by work in an anthology with other Mexican writers. [5]

From 1970-71 she was the vice-chair of Chicano Studies executive committee at University of California, Berkeley. [2] From 1970-72 she was the coordinator of Chicano Studies Library. [2] She is a founding member, Aztlán Cultural and Centro Chicano de Escritores. [2] She is a member of the Oakland Museum and Latin American Commission. [2]

Selected works

Reception of works

Corpi's books have received mixed reviews. Publishers Weekly called Palabras de mediodia/Noon Words "her dawn." [9] With Eulogy For A Brown Angel : A Mystery Novel, Kirkus Reviews wrote "Corpi brings a Chicana feminist perspective to the mystery genre and does so with enough originality to overcome some stilted and murky writing." and "Awkward and slow moving at times, but still worthwhile mystery-reading." [10] and Publishers Weekly wrote "A haze of dazzlingly evocative prose very nearly hides this first mystery's slack plotting. Corpi's ear for Latino rhythms and her feminist leanings produce some original and highly charged narrative moments. But plot still matters." but then concludes "Although careful readers might anticipate the solution and wish for a few more suspects, Corpi expands the genre with this work of small triumphs." [11]

Kirkus Reviews was critical of Cactus Blood, calling it "A well-nigh impenetrable mystery full of stilted dialogue, murky scene-setting, wild poetry, and furious evocations of the 1973 grape boycott and 1989 Oakland earthquake." [12] while Publishers Weekly wrote "Corpi writes convincingly about Gloria's attempts to interpret her visions and does a fine job depicting decent people handling dangerous situations. But many moments of harking-back and a rash of coincidences slow the narrative." [13]

Awards

Related Research Articles

Elizabeth Fama is a young adult author, best known for her book Monstrous Beauty, a fantasy novel for teens. Her third book is Plus One, which published in April 2014.

<i>Im Not Who You Think I Am</i> Book by Peg Kehret

I'm Not Who You Think I Am is an American novel for young adults by Peg Kehret, published in 1999.

Carol Elizabeth Fenner was an American children's writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicano poetry</span> Subgenre of Mexica-American literature

Chicano poetry is a subgenre of Chicano literature that stems from the cultural consciousness developed in the Chicano Movement. Chicano poetry has its roots in the reclamation of Chicana/o as an identity of empowerment rather than denigration. As a literary field, Chicano poetry emerged in the 1960s and formed its own independent literary current and voice.

Alicia Gaspar de Alba is an American scholar, cultural critic, novelist, and poet whose works include historical novels and scholarly studies on Chicana/o art, culture and sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolando Hinojosa-Smith</span> American writer and academic (1929–2022)

Romeo Rolando Hinojosa-Smith was an American novelist, essayist, poet and the Ellen Clayton Garwood professor in the English Department at the University of Texas at Austin. He was noted for authoring the Klail City Death Trip series of 15 novels written over several decades.

Roberta Fernández is a Tejana novelist, scholar, critic and arts advocate. She is known for her novel Intaglio and for her work editing several award-winning women writers. She was a professor in Romance Languages & Literatures and Women's Studies at the University of Georgia.

Carolyn Coman is an American writer best known for children's books. Her novels What Jamie Saw (1995) and Many Stones (2000) were among the runners-up for major annual awards by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Book Foundation.

Alejandro Morales is a Mexican-American writer of fiction and poetry. He is an Emeritus Professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He has published seven novels, three novellas, and one collection of poetry.

<i>Claim to Fame</i> (novel) 2009 novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Claim to Fame is a novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2009.

Graciela Limón is a Latina/Chicana novelist and a former university professor. She has been honored with an American Book Award and the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature.

Yxta Maya Murray is an American Latina novelist and professor at Loyola Marymount School of Law.

Patricia Santana is a Latina American novelist.

<i>Missing Angel Juan</i> 1995 book by Francesca Lia Block

Missing Angel Juan is the fourth book in the Dangerous Angels series by Francesca Lia Block. The plot revolves around Witch Baby as she travels to New York City to find her love Angel Juan and bring him back home to Los Angeles. It was adapted for the stage in 1996.

Hispanic and Latino women in America have been involved in journalism for years, using their multilingual skills to reach across cultures and spread news throughout the 19th century until the common era. Hispanic presses provided information important to the Hispanic and Latin American communities and helped to foster and preserve the cultural values that remain today. These presses also "promoted education, provided special-interest columns, and often founded magazines, publishing houses, and bookstores to disseminate the ideas of local and external writers."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Tafolla</span> American writer

Carmen Tafolla is an internationally acclaimed Chicana writer from San Antonio, Texas, and a professor emerita of bicultural bilingual studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Tafolla served as the poet laureate of San Antonio from 2012 to 2014, and was named the Poet Laureate of Texas for 2015–16. Tafolla has written more than thirty books, and won multiple literary awards. She is one of the most highly anthologized Chicana authors in the United States, with her work appearing in more than 300 anthologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xavier Garza</span>

Xavier Garza is an author and illustrator of children's books and professor of art at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio.

Mary Helen Ponce is a chicana writer. She was born on January 24, 1938, in Pacoima, California. She has worked as an instructor of Chicano studies at California State University, Northridge from 1982 to 1987 and from 1987 to 1988 she was also an adjunct professor. From 1988 to 1992 she was adjunct faculty in the Women's Studies Program at the University of New Mexico, Women's Studies Program. She was an adjunct faculty member at University of California from 1992 to 1993. She is also a writer for the Los Angeles Times. She earned her bachelor's degree in Anthropology from California State University in 1978 and then a master's degree in Chicano Studies in 1980. She studied from 1982 to 1984 at the University of California at Los Angeles. There she was the recipient of the History Department's Danforth Fellowship. She worked toward her Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico in 1988. She is a member of Comisión Femenil San Fernando Valley.

E. X. Giroux, the pseudonym of Doris Shannon, who also wrote under her own name, was a U.S.-born Canadian writer of mystery novels set in the United Kingdom. Her published work appeared in two series of 10 novels each between 1972 and 1993. Earlier, between 1942 and 1949, she worked as a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada in Napanee, Ontario, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Sylvia Haymon was a British writer of mystery fiction, autobiography, and other fiction and nonfiction. As an adult, she worked in public relations, broadcasting, journalism, and farming, and published nonfiction that included two childhood memoirs, a historical novel, biographies of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Monmouth, and a history of Norwich, her birthplace. Writing under the pseudonym S. T. Haymon, she became well-known for her police procedural series featuring Detective Inspector Ben Jurnet. She won the Crime Writers Association Silver Dagger Award in 1983 for Ritual Murder.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dictionary of Hispanic Biography . Detroit: Gale. 1996. ISBN   9780810383029.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Contemporary Hispanic Biography . Detroit: Gale. 2002. ISBN   9780787665388.
  3. 1 2 Notable Hispanic American Women . Detroit: Gale. 1993.
  4. 1 2 Contemporary Women Poets. Detroit: Gale. 1998.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Blues City by Ishmael Reed. Crown Journeys. 2003.
  6. 1 2 Lisa, Griswold; Sandy, Hopkins; Matt, Lecheler; Lauren, Curtright (2002). "Lucha Corpi". conservancy.umn.edu. hdl:11299/166132 . Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  7. ↑ Lucha Corpi (April 2002). Eulogy For A Brown Angel: A Gloria Damasco Mystery. Arte Publico Press. ISBN   9781611921427.
  8. ↑ Lucha Corpi (1999). Black Widow's Wardrobe: A Gloria Damasco Mystery. Arte Publico Press. ISBN   9781611920710.
  9. ↑ "Palabras de Mediodia = Noon Words". www.publishersweekly.com. PWxyz LLC. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Eulogy for a Brown Angel". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Media LLC. July 1, 1992. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Eulogy for a Brown Angel: A Mystery Novel". www.publishersweekly.com. PWxyz LLC. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Cactus Blood". www.kirkusreviews.com. Kirkus Media LLC. February 15, 1995. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Cactus Blood: A Mystery Novel". www.publishersweekly.com. PWxyz LLC. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Contemporary Authors Online". Biography in Context. Gale. 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.