Judith Ortiz Cofer
Judith Ortiz Cofer (February 24, 1952 – December 30, 2016) was a Puerto Rican author. She is best known for her works of creative non-fiction and her works are to exposes the rifts and gaps that arise between her split cultural heritages. Her work also explores such subjects as racism and sexism in American culture. She was also an author of a children´s book. The topics she wrote about over her career: A Love Story Beginning in Spanish, Reaching for the Mainland and Selected New Poems, Terms of Survival, and The Poet Upstairs, Animal Jamboree/La Fiesta De Los Animales: Latino Folktales / Leyendas, and A Bailar!/Let’s Dance. Most of her topics are about children, animals, and love. Judith Ortiz Cofer was voted into the Georgia Writers Hall ofFfame.
Early life
changeJudith Ortíz Cofer was born to Jesus Lugo Ortíz and Fanny Morot in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, on February 24, 1952. She moved to Paterson, New Jersey with her family in 1956. Morot (her mother) gave birth to Judith Ortíz Cofer when she was fifteen years old.[1] They believed they would have more opportunities for young parents in America. Despite Lugo’s (her father) passion for working in a university, he left school and joined the U.S. Navy. Later, he was assigned to Panama when his daughter was born. He met Judith Ortiz Cofer for the first time two years later. Her family’s move from Puerto Rico to New Jersey influenced her writing.
How she became a writer
changeOrtiz Cofer's work can be called creative nonfiction. Her narrative style was influenced by oral storytelling, which her grandmother inspired. In Puerto Rico, their tradition is storytelling.[2] She began her writing career with a work of poetry, The Latin Deli. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her other works explore various genres, combining poetry, short fiction, and personal narrative.[3] Ortiz Cofer's works often focus on living her life between two cultures, American and Puerto Rican, and how this informs her ideas as a writer.