An Interview with Judith Ortiz Cofer

Abstract

Judith Ortiz Cofer represents the new frontier of American literature as her prose and poetry depict and integrate the many cross-sections of culture she has encountered in her life. Cofer was born on February 24, 1952 in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico. Her father joined the Navy and in 1954 moved the family to Paterson, New Jersey. When he was on active duty, Judith, her mother, and brother would move back to Hormigueros to stay with her maternal grandmother, often for months at a time. The Ortiz family relocated to Georgia when Judith was a teenager, and she still lives there today. All these worlds have become a part of her literary imagination and add to the richness and complexity of her writing. Cofer is the author of eight books, and her versatility is evident in the range of genres in which she worksshe has published a novel as well as collections of poetry, essays, stories, and creative non-fiction memoir. Her titles include The Year of Our Revolution, An Island Like You: Stories fiom the Barrio, The Latin Deli, Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood, The Line of the Sun, Reaching for the Mainland, and Terms of Survival Her most recent books are Sleeping with One Eye Open: Women Writers and the Art ofSurvivaly which she co-edited with Marilyn Kallet, and a wonderful collection of essays, Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming a Writer. Her much-anticipated second novel, The Meaning ofConsueloy will be published this year by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Cofer's poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in hundreds of anthologies, magazines, and journals, and she has been the recipient of many literary awards and honors. Her novel The Line of the Sun was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, her essay