Time
Friday, May 05, 2023
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
PST
Location
Who is Invited
Social Justice Racial Equity Commission in the College of Education, Kinesiology, and Social Work presents award-winning author Reyna Grande.
About the Author
Reyna Grande is the author of the bestselling memoir, The Distance Between Us, (Atria, 2012) where she writes about her life before and after she arrived in the United States from Mexico as an undocumented child immigrant. The much-anticipated sequel, A Dream Called Home (Atria), was released in 2018.
Born in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico, Reyna was two years old when her father left for the U.S. to find work. Her mother followed her father north two years later, leaving Reyna and her siblings behind in Mexico. In 1985, when Reyna was nine, she left Iguala to make her own journey north. After attending Pasadena City College for two years, Reyna became the first person in her family to set foot in a university. She went on to obtain a B.A. in creative writing and film & video from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Antioch University.
Her other works include the novels, Across a Hundred Mountains (Atria, 2006), Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009), and A Ballad of Love and Glory (Atria, 2022). She also co-edited the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings (HarperCollins, 2022). Reyna has received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award, and the International Latino Book Award, and in 2013 was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award.
The young reader’s version of The Distance Between Us received an International Literacy Association Children’s Book Award in 2017. Reyna’s work has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, The Lily at The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, and more, and in 2020 she was a guest on Oprah's Book Club television special. Visit ReynaGrande.com for more information.
