Carmen Tafolla

Affiliation

University of Texas San Antonio

Biography

Poet, performer, and cultural activist, Carmen Tafolla is the author of 40 books. A native of the west side barrios of San Antonio, Tafolla was named by Mayor Julian Castro in 2012 as San Antonio’s first City Poet Laureate, and was in 2015 selected as the State Poet Laureate of Texas. Tafolla has performed her one-woman show, With Our Very Own Names, throughout Europe, the Americas, and New Zealand, and her work has been published in more than 400 anthologies. She received her Ph.D. in Bilingual Education from the University of Texas, and was the first Chicana to direct a Mexican American Studies Program in the U.S. Tafolla is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Américas Award, six International Latino Book Awards, the Art of Peace Award and Top Ten Books for Babies, and has been recognized by the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies for work which “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land.” In 2018, she became the first Latina to be elected President of the Texas Institute of Letters. A Professor Emeritus of Bicultural Bilingual Studies at University of Texas San Antonio, Tafolla credits the community around her with her inspiration and her training, and says her works are inspired by “ancestors whispering over my shoulder.” In 2023 Penguin released Tafolla’s 40th book, Warrior Girl. She is currently at work on the full adult biography of 1930s civil rights organizer, Emma