Judith Ortiz Cofer was born in the small town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, on February 24, 1952. Her Puerto Rican heritage flavors her poetry and prose, as does her later life as a Puerto Rican American living on the mainland. She moved to Paterson, New Jersey, when she was two years old, and much of her work is set in New Jersey Puerto Rican neighborhoods.

Even as a young child, Ortiz Cofer knew she wanted to work in a creative field when she matured. She dreamed of being a dancer or a musician, but it was listening to the many stories that her grandmother told her, including traditional folklore and fairy tales, that helped Ortiz Cofer come to the realization that she could become a teller of tales herself one day. She kept notebooks during her youth, recording her daily life and creating stories to tell...