2015 Visiting Writer Announced
Jimmy Santiago Baca, bestselling novelist, American Book Award Winner, screenwriter, and author of A Place to Stand, will be appearing at the Wilshire Auditorium on Nov. 19, at 6:30 p.m. as part of the 2015 Visiting Writer event presented by the Humanities Division, the Puente Program, the Ethnic Studies Department, and Cadena Cultural Transfer Center.
Orphaned at a young age, Baca never graduated from middle school and was in and out of jails until he found himself in one of the worst state prisons in America by his mid-twenties. In solitary confinement, Baca taught himself to read and write. He eventually published poetry in a major magazine from his jail cell and had a book offer before he left prison.
Now, Baca visits low-income schools, colleges, universities, barrio community centers and correctional facilities from coast to coast – preaching the value of young people reading and writing. He launched a non-profit called CedarTree to expand this literary crusade to at-risk students nationwide. He has 30 books published in 50 languages around the globe and is often heralded for the cult classic movie he wrote: Blood In, Blood Out.
Baca has a Ph.D. in literature from the University of New Mexico and has won several awards, including the 1986 NEA Literary Fellowship, the 1987 Vogelstein Foundation Award and the 1988 Pushcart Prize.
The itinerary for this event consists of a reading at 6:30 p.m. followed by a question and answer session and book signing.
