Pat Mora

Pat Mora (born 1942) is a Chicana author known primarily for her poetry and children's books.

Life and Work
Pat Mora is a writer and cultural preservationist who seeks to document the lives of Mexican Americans and U.S. Latinas and Latinos through varying genres such as children's books, poetry, and nonfiction. A descendant of four grandparents who came to Texas from Mexico during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the early twentieth century, Mora's bilingual and bicultural experiences inform her literary contributions. She was born in El Paso, Texas, on January 19, 1942. In her writing, Mora adopts the terrain and life of the Chihuahua desert and recognizes the human and cultural diversity of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

The author of more than forty volumes of poetry, nonfiction, and children's picture books, Mora has received numerous honors for her work, including an National Endowment of the Arts poetry fellowship, the Civitella Ranieri fellowship, four Southwest Book Awards, the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize, the Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award, the Ohioana Award, and the Pellicer-Frost 1999 Bi-National Poetry Award. She has also served as a consultant on U.S.-Mexico youth program exchanges, a museum and university administrator, and a teacher of English language arts at all academic levels.

Mora is known as well for her promotion of "El día de los ninos/El día de los libros," a celebration of books, children, languages, and cultures. The celebration is recognized annually on April 30 in libraries and schools across the country alongside programming to promote family literacy and multilingualism.

The author of many award-winning children's books, Mora is the founder of the family literacy initiative El día de los niños / El día de los libros, Children's Day / Book Day (Día), now housed at the American Library Association. The year-long commitment to linking all children and families to books, languages and cultures, and of sharing what she calls "bookjoy," culminates in celebrations across the country in April.

Mora received Honorary Doctorates in Letters from North Carolina State University and SUNY Buffalo and is an Honorary Member of the American Library Association. Among her other awards are the 2006 National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award and a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship to write in Umbria, Italy. She was a Visiting Carruthers Chair at the University of New Mexico, a recipient and judge of the Poetry Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a recipient and advisor of the Kellogg National Fellowships.

Mora is a popular national speaker shaped by the US/Mexico border where she was born and spent much of her life. She is married to Vern Scarborough and is the mother of three grown children. She lives Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Poetry

 * Adobe Odes
 * Agua Santa: Holy Water
 * Aunt Carmen's Book of Practical Saints
 * Borders (1986)
 * Chants (1984)
 * Communion (1991)

Nonfiction

 * House of Houses (1992)
 * Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle (1992)
 * ZING! Seven Creativity Practices for Educators and Students (2010)

Young Adult Books

 * Dizzy in Your Eyes: Poems about Love (2010)
 * My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults (2000)

Rhymes and Poetry

 * This Big Sky
 * Book Fiesta! Celebrate Children's Day, Book Day/Celebremos el Día de los niños, el Día de los libros (bilingual)
 * Confetti: Poems for Children
 * Confeti: Poemas para niños (Spanish edition)
 * Delicious Hullabaloo: Pachanga deliciosa (bilingual)
 * The Desert Is My Mother/El desierto es mi madre(bilingual)
 * Gracias/Thanks
 * Join Hands: The Way We Celebrate
 * Love to Mamá: A Tribute to Mothers
 * ¡Marimba! Animales A-Z
 * The Song of St. Francis and the Animals
 * Uno, dos, tres: One, Two, Three
 * Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings
 * Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! Brotes de las Américas(Spanish edition)