Barbara Mujica is an American novelist, short story writer and critic. She has also written op-eds on bilingual education and is a member of the advisory board of the US English association; her husband Mauro Mujica is its Chair and CEO. Her latest novels are I Am Venus, inspired by the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez, Sister Teresa, based on the life of Saint Teresa of Ávila, and Frida, based on the life of Frida Kahlo. The latter was translated into seventeen languages. Mujica's other book-length fiction includes The Deaths of Don Bernardo, Sanchez across the Street and Far from My Mother's Home. Barbara Mujica's short stories have appeared in numerous magazines including The Minnesota Review, Pangolin Papers, and The Literary Review, and anthologies such as Where Angels Glide at Dawn, eds. Lori Carlson and Cnythia Ventura, Intro. Isabel Allende, What Is Secret: Stories by Chilean Women, ed. Marjorie Agosín, Two Worlds Walking, ed. C. W. Truesdale and Diana Glancy, and The House of Memory, ed. Marjorie Agosín. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, and many other publications. In 1990 her essay "Bilingualism's Goal" was named one of the best 50 op-eds of the decade by The New York Times. A professor of Spanish at Georgetown University, she has written numerous books and articles. The latest books are A New Anthology of Early Modern Spanish Theater: Play and Playtext ; Teresa de Avila, Lettered Women ; Espiritualidad y feminismo: Santa Teresa de Jesus', and Women Writers of Early Modern Spain: Sophia's Daughters.
Awards and honors
Mujica has won several awards for her writing: first prize in the Maryland Writers' Association fiction competition in the short story category ; third prize in the Maryland Writers' Association fiction competition for both historical novel and short story, the Trailblazers Award from Dialogue on Diversity, the Theodore Hoepfner Award, the Pangolin Prize, the E. L. Doctorow International Fiction Competition. She has also won grants and awards from Poets and Writers of New York and the Spanish Government. She is a two-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize for Fiction.
