Carmen Tafolla (edit name/settings)

Dr. Carmen Tafolla is an internationally acclaimed writer and and educational consultant. She is a native of the west side barrios of San Antonio, Texas.

She has written numerous books of poetry, nonfiction, screenplays, short stories, academic articles, and children's books. Her work has appeared in more than forty anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2003), Infinite Divisions (1993), and After Aztlán: Latino Poets of the Nineties (1992). She has received numerous awards, including first prize in the poetry division of the National Chicano Literary Contest, UC Irvine, for Sonnets to Human Beings (1987), which was translated into German and published as a dual-language edition in 1992. Since the mid-1970s, she has presented keynotes, speeches, and training seminars to more than two hundred universities, school districts, corporations, and professional organizations. Since 1990, she has performed her one-woman show With Our Very Own Names—a dramatic performance incorporating the voices of elderly women, first graders, rebellious teens, janitors, retired veterans, and young professionals—more than one hundred times throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico. Tafolla has been recognized by the National Association for Chicano Studies for her outstanding contributions to the arts and academia. Her papers and early works are archived in the Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Benson.