Judith Ortiz Cofer

Born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, Judith Ortíz Cofer moved with her family to the United States as a young child. Initially residing in Paterson, New Jersey, the family made frequent trips back to Hormigueros, and ultimately moved to Augusta, Georgia when Cofer was a teenager. Cofer primarily received her education in the United States but also attended Puerto Rican schools when she lived with her grandmother in Hormigueros. This experience of growing up between two cultures profoundly shaped Cofer’s identity and creative pursuits. She became interested in literature, translation, and cultural comparison, and eventually received a B.A. in English from Augusta College and an M.A. in English literature from Florida Atlantic University. Cofer became a prolific and celebrated writer across multiple genres, including poetry, creative nonfiction, short fiction, children’s literature, and memoir. Many of her best-known works, including The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women (which contains “The Myth of the Latin Woman”) and Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood, blend multiple genres, including personal essays, poetry, and short fiction. From 1984 to 2013, she served as the Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia. She was diagnosed with a rare type of liver cancer soon after her retirement, and she passed away three years later.