Miriam Bornstein is a Chicana feminist poet whose work is an exploration of the diverse facets of womanhood, an affirmation of identity, and a search for communion with the "other." It evokes feelings of tenderness and anguish, and at times it offers an indictment of the ills that plague modern society. It begins with personal existential concerns, and from there it strives toward identification with a collective entity represented by those sectors of society who have suffered deprivation or who struggle for a moral good. In her work, the personal extends toward the social.

Miriam Mijalina Bornstein was born on 19 February 1950 in Puebla, Mexico. Her mother, Cristina Gómez Sánchez, a homemaker and hairstylist, was Mexican; her father, Abraham Bornstein, a medical sales representative and writer, was an immigrant from Poland. Bornstein has lived in the United States since 1964 and is a naturalized citizen. She...