Graciela Limón (born August 2, 1938 Los Angeles) 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. Limón has written critical work on Mexican, Latin American and Caribbean literature. She now concentrates her writing efforts on creative fiction that is germane to her areas of interest: feminism, social justice and cultural identity. Her body of work includes ''In Search of Bernabé'', which won The Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award (1994). Limón also published ''The Memories of Ana Calderón'' (1994), ''Song of the Hummingbird'' (1996) and ''The Day of the Moon'' (1999). ''Erased Faces'', which was awarded the 2002 Gustavus Myers Book Award, was published in 2001; ''Left Alive'' was released in 2005; ''The River Flows North'' in 2009, and ''The Madness of Mamá Carlota'' in 2012. Her latest book is ''The Intriguing Life of Ximena Godoy'', published by Cafe con Leche Books.

Life

Graciela Limón was born in East Los Angeles where her parents settled after immigration from Mexico. She always dreamed of becoming a novelist from an early age but that dream slowly started to fade once she reached college. She graduated from Marymount College (now Loyola Marymount University),

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with a master's degree, and from University of California Los Angeles with a PhD in Spanish American Literature. She is a professor emeritus of Loyola Marymount University, where she taught U.S. and Hispanic literature and also served as chair of the Department of Chicano and Chicana Studies. She attempted to publish a collection of her essays, but every editor she went to rejected them. This caused her to spend some time in depression. She is currently a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and University of California, Los Angeles. She teaches courses in Latina/Chicana narratives, border narratives, and contemporary Latin American literature. Limón has been an activist in Chicano work as well as in the areas of gender and women's affairs. Sheimón has published nine novels, all of which deal with a Latina and trans-border experience.

Awards

* 1994, The Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award * 2002, Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award * 2009, Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature

Works

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Anthologies

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References

External links

* http://www.gracielalimon.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Limon, Graciela 1938 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American women novelists Writers from Los Angeles Loyola Marymount University faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Loyola Marymount University alumni Universidad de las Américas Puebla alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Living people 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American Book Award winners American women academics