By: Isabel DeMarco ~Guest Writer~

Sandra Cisneros, a critically acclaimed author, will be doing a reading and book signing in the Tangeman University Center at the University of Cincinnati on Sept. 28. Cisneros is best known for her novel, The House on Mango Street (1984).

Cisneros’ works have become required reading in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country. Cisneros has been celebrated for decades regarding her many contributions to literature and for her frank discussion of race, sexuality and culture.

Cisneros has experimented with a variety of literary forms, having published novels, picture books, poetry, vignettes and essays alike.

Her most recent book, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life (2015) is a memoir that details important moments in her life through a series of nonfiction essays.

Cisneros’ other works include: Bad Boys (1980), The Rodrigo Poems (1985), My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), Hairs: Pelitos (1994), Loose Woman (1994), Caramelo (2002), and Have You Seen Marie? (2012).

Cisneros has been awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, numerous National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for literature and poetry, the American Book Award for The House on Mango Street, the Frank Dobie Arts Fellowship, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN Center West Award for best fiction, the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories and a Texas Medal of the Arts.

On Sept. 22, Cisneros will receive the National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama for her significant contributions in the literary field.

Her works have been translated into more than 20 languages. She is also the founder of the Macondo Foundation, a group of socially involved writers, and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation, which is a grant-giving organization that aids Texas writers.

The reading is presented in partnership with UC’s Departments of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Department of Romantic Languages, the Fellows of the Graduate School, the Taft Research Center and the Mercantile Library.

The event will take place in room 220 of the Tangeman University Center at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. There is limited seating available. Students and members of the Cincinnati community are encouraged to attend this event in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati.