Voting Station

Sandra Cisneros

Please vote to return to collections.

Author

The Resume

    (December 20, 1954- )
    Born in Chicago, Illinois
    Resided in San Antonio, Texas
    Hispanic-American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer
    Best known for her acclaimed first novel, 'The House on Mango Street' (1984)
    Best known short stories include 'Mexican Movies,' 'Never Marry a Mexican,' 'Eyes of Zapata,' and 'Woman Hollering Creek'
    Also the author of 'Bad Boys' (1980), 'My Wicked, Wicked Ways' (1987), 'Woman Hollering Creek and Other Short Stories' (1991), 'Hairs = Pelitos' (1994), 'Loose Woman: Poems' (1994), 'Carmalo' (2002), and 'Have You Seen Marie?' (2012)
    Made literary contributions to 'Days and Nights of Love and War' (2000), 'Family Pictures: Cuadros de Familia' (2005), 'Emergency Tacos: Seven Poets Con Picante' (2007), and 'Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews' (2014)
    Founded the Macondo Foundation for aspiring writers (1998)
    Founder of the Latino MacArthur Fellows, Los MacArtos (1995)
    Founded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation for young Texas-based writers (2000)
    Taught creative writing as a writer-in-residence at University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan, and Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio

Why he might be annoying:

    She joked that writing was as difficult as putting your head underwater.
    Her short stories often have irreverent and inappropriate titles, like 'Never Marry a Mexican.'
    Some of her imagery can be profane, e.g. describing a man's eyelashes as being soft as the skin of a man's genitals in 'Eyes of Zapata.'
    She drove a pickup truck with a bumper sticker reading 'wild women don't get the blues.'
    She annoyed many of her neighbors by painting her house in an unsightly 'Mexican pink' shade of Corsican purple.
    Her author's note for 'House on Mango Street' reads 'I am nobody's mother and nobody's wife.'
    She is constantly mistaken for a relative of San Antonio Mayor, Henry Cisneros, but they are of no relation.
    When she was asked why she never married and started a family, she said 'My writing is my child and I don't want anything to come between us.'
    She equated the renewed interest in her early works before the success of 'Mango Street' with acquiring a green card.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Her authentic and poignant writing style is genuinely engaging.
    She has been compared to Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Zora Neale Hurston.
    'House on Mango Street' sold over two million copies after its initial publication.
    She was arguably the first Latina writer to make major gains in American literature.
    She aspired to become a writer when she started writing poems about the Vietnam War in High School.
    She grew up as the only sister to six brothers.
    She was born into a family of refugees from the Mexican Revolution.
    She later said the constant traveling between Chicago and the Mexican border instilled in her a sense of 'displacement' essential to her writing style.
    Her first novel was awarded the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 1985.
    She was honored twice with the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
    She was awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Grant in 1995.
    She was awarded the Texas Medal of the Arts (2003)

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 12 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 13 Votes: 23.08% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying