Esmeralda Santiago is a Puerto Rican author who came to the United States from rural Puerto Rico at age thirteen and grew up in Brooklyn. Her experiences navigating a new language, culture, and environment shaped her writing and form the backbone of her work, which includes three memoirs, three novels, two anthologies, numerous essays, and the children’s book A Doll for Navidades.
Her groundbreaking memoir When I Was Puerto Rican established her as a major literary voice. Her second memoir, Almost a Woman, received numerous “Best of the Year” mentions and an Alex Award from the American Library Association, and her adaptation of the memoir into a film for PBS Masterpiece Theatre received the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting. Her third memoir, The Turkish Lover, explores the struggle to leave home and forge an authentic bilingual and bicultural identity.
Santiago’s first novel, América’s Dream, was followed by the national bestseller Conquistadora. Her most recent novel is Las Madres. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She has received honorary doctorates from four universities and has served on the boards of the Jacob Burns Film Center, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, PEN America, and the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. She has also traveled internationally as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. State Department and serves as a spokesperson for public libraries.