Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a queer Chicana poet, writer, and feminist theorist. She earned her BA from the University of Texas–Pan American (now University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) and her MA in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Her poems and essays explore the anger and isolation of occupying the margins of culture and collective identity. Anzaldúa was awarded the Lambda Lesbian Small Book Press Award, a Sappho Award of Distinction, and an NEA Fiction Award, among others. She is the author of several books of poetry, nonfiction, and children’s fiction. Her book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) and her essay “La Prieta” are considered groundbreaking works in cultural, feminist, and queer theories. With Cherríe Moraga, Anzaldúa co-edited the landmark anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981).