Celebrated Novelist Sandra Cisneros in Lecture at TAMIU

One of the most iconic writers of modern literature, Sandra Cisneros, visited Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 6 p.m., sharing a reading, Q&A, and book signing in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Recital Hall.

Presented by the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Humanities, this event was free of charge and open to all.

Cisneros, the celebrated author of the beloved best-selling novel The House on Mango Street, a coming-of-age classic, will read from her new poetry collection, Woman Without Shame (Knopf).

Woman Without Shame has been hailed as a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations chronicling the author’s pilgrimage toward rebirth and recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. Honest and humorous and full of meditations on desire, love, memory, and self-awareness, Woman Without Shame is considered the culmination of Cisneros’ search for home – in the México of her ancestors, and in her heart.

TAMIU Department of Humanities chair Dr. Debbie R. Lelekis said having Cisneros appear at TAMIU was a rare privilege and opportunity that is warmly shared.

“We are thrilled to bring Sandra Cisneros to campus to speak to our community. It’s special to have the chance to hear an author read their own work, especially in this case since her writing and voice have filled our classrooms for decades. Her iconic classics like The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek, Caramelo, and others have made a lasting impact on readers world-wide and inspired countless others to write as well. We look forward to hearing her latest poetry collection,” Dr. Lelekis observed.

Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working-class.  Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, the Texas Medal of the Arts, a MacArthur Fellowship, the PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature, the National Medal of Arts, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation.  

Her novel The House on Mango Street has sold over seven million copies, has been translated into over 25 languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation. A new book, Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo, a story in English and Spanish, was published in 2021.

Woman Without Shame, published by Knopf in the Fall of 2022, is Cisneros’s first book of poetry in 28 years. Vintage Español has published the Spanish language translation, Mujer sin vergüenza, by Liliana Valenzuela.  Cisneros is a dual citizen of the United States and México.  As a single woman, she chose to have books instead of children and earns her living by her pen. 

Copies of Woman Without Shame will be available for sale at the Nov. 7 TAMIU event.

For additional information, contact TAMIU’s Office of Public Relations, Marketing, and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu, call 956.326.2180, or visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, room 268. 

More is found on the University’s website, tamiu.edu, and via social channels on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, Twitter, and YouTube.