Mayra Santos-Febres is a Puerto Rican author, poet, novelist, professor of literature, essayist, and literary critic and author of children's books. Her work focuses primarily on themes of diaspora identity, female sexuality, the erotic, gender fluidity, desire, and power. She has been an influence in bringing about new youth writers in Puerto Rico. She is also a community activist helping bring books and stories to the less fortunate. Her work has been translated into French, English, German, and Italian, and is taught in many universities in the United States.
Early life
Santos-Febres was born in 1966 to parents who were both schoolteachers. Santos-Febres first began writing at the age of five because her asthma did not permit her to "climb trees or ride bikes like the other boys in the neighborhood." She states that her disability, combined with her educator parents' knack for keeping books and papers around the house, catapulted her into the beginnings of her writing career. At the age of fifteen, after writing for ten years, she was encouraged to take her writing seriously by Ivonna Sanavitis, the only female teacher who was not a nun at her Catholic school.
Education and academic work
Santos-Febres completed her undergraduate work at the University of Puerto Rico in 1991 and currently holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard university and Cornell University.
While still an undergraduate at the University of Puerto Rico, Santos-Febres had her work published in several international magazines and journal reviews such as Casa de las Américas in Cuba, Página doce in Argentina, Revue Noire in France and Review: Latin American Literature and Arts, in New York. Her work has been translated into French, English, German, and Italian, and is taught in many universities in the United States. In 1991, Santos-Febres published her first two collections of poetry, Anamu y manigua and El orden escapado, to critical acclaim. In 1994, Santos-Febres won the Letras de Oro literary prize for her collection of short storiesPez de Vidrio. "Oso Blanco," a short story from this collection, also won the Juan Rulfo Award in 1996. Pez de Vidrio contains 15 short stories about the complicated relationships between sexual desire, race, identity, social status, and political status in modern Caribbean society. Sirena Selena vestida de pena, which focuses on the life of a teenaged drag queen who works in the streets and has a talent for singing boleros, was Ms. Santos-Febres first novel. A finalist for the 2001 Rómulo Gallego’s Prize for the Novel, it won the PEN Club of Puerto Rico’s prize for Best Novel, and was subsequently translated into English and Italian. When Random House Mondadori published her second novel, Cualquier miércoles soy tuya, in 2002, the first edition sold out in a month; a second edition, issued in Spain and the Americas, did nearly as well; an English translation was published by Penguin Books. Her third novel, Nuestra Señora de las noche, placed as a finalist for the Premio Primavera Literary Award, and captured Puerto Rico’s 2007 Premio Nacional de Literatura. Her more recent publications include a collection of essays called Sobre piel y paper, as well as a novel about Isabel la Negra, titled Nuestra Señora de la Noche . Santos-Febres' most recent novel is La amante de Gardel. Santos-Febres is also well known as an essayist and book critic, and she reviews books regularly on Univision television. She also hosts the Radio Universidad show En su tinta. In her academic work as teacher and researcher, she specializes in African, Caribbean, and feminist literature. Santos-Febres currently teaches at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and is the Executive Director of Festival de la Palabra in Puerto Rico.
Awards and notability
Award for poetry from Revista Tríptico in Puerto Rico 1991
