Demetria Martinez

Martinez is the author of the National Book Award-winning bookThe Block Captains Daughter. She is an author and social justice activist who has published six books, including novels, books of poetry and a children’s book. Her poetry collections include The Devil’s Workshop (2002), Breathing Between the Lines (1997), and Turning (1987). She is the author of the novella The Block Captain’s Daughter (2012), a recipient of the 2013 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the novel Mother Tongue (1994), which won a Western States Book Award and is based on part on her 1988 indictment on charges of conspiring to smuggle Central American refugees into the United States. A reporter for Kansas City’s National Catholic Reporter, she was later acquitted on First Amendment grounds. Her essay collection Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana (2005) won the International Latino Book Award. With Rosalee Montoya-Read, she co-authored Grandpa’s Magic Tortilla (2010, illustrated by Lisa May Casaus), which won New Mexico Book Awards’ Young Readers Book Award. She is an activist on several fronts, including work with the Jardines Institute which is committed to food justice and sustainable farming in economically disadvantaged communities. Call 928-523-2411