“Living
in America: Voices and Visions”
Denise
Chavez
Reading Wednesday, March 5, 2003
Denise Chavez is a novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, actress, director, and teacher. The winner of an American Book Award for her novel Face of an Angel, Denise Chavez is the author of three additional novels, over twenty plays, and numerous poems, as well as frequently serving as an editor and co-author for many anthologies. Writing about Face of an Angel Sandra Cisneros has said, “I love this book so much it sounds like I am lying.” After completing a BA in drama at New Mexico State University, Chavez received a MFA in drama from Trinity College and a MA in creative writing from the University of New Mexico. Her collection of stories The Last of the Menu Girls won the Puerto del Sol Fiction Award and her most recent novel Loving Pedro Infante has received a great deal of critical praise.
A native of Las Cruces, NM, Chavez still lives in the house where she grew up and writes in the bedroom where she was born. Chavez’s many voices turn “around family, culture, tradition, mercy,” and are rooted in the stories and traditions and bilingualism of the Chicana heritage she celebrates and explores. Chavez also directs the Border Books Festival, which focuses on the literature of the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.
Bibliography
Loving Pedro Infante (2000)
Face of an Angel (1994)
Last of the Menu Girls (1986)
Children’s Prose
The Woman Who Knew the Language of
Animals (1992)
Drama