Achy Obejas

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Achy Obejas
Born June 28, 1956
Havana, Cuba
Occupation novelist, journalist
Nationality Cuban
Notable works Days of Awe
Notable awards Lambda Literary Awards (x2)
Website
www.achyobejas.com

Achy Obejas (born June 28, 1956) is a Cuban-American writer and journalist focused on personal and national identity issues,[1] living in Oakland, California. She frequently writes on her sexuality and nationality, and has received numerous awards for her creative work. She worked as a journalist in Chicago for over two decades, and is currently the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, California, where she teaches creative writing.

Personal life

Obejas was born June 28, 1956, in Havana, Cuba.[2] After emigrating to the United States at the age of six, she lived in Michigan City, Indiana, and attended Indiana University from 1977 to 1979, when she moved to Chicago.

Nationality

At the age of 39, Obejas revisited Cuba. Reflections on her home country are dispersed throughout her work, such as in the story collection We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?[3] Although she has lived in the Midwest since childhood, Obejas says her Cuban origins continue to be a defining detail in her life. In an interview with Gregg Shapiro, Obejas discussed the peculiar duality of growing up in the U.S. but not truly identifying as an American:

"I was born in Havana and that single event has pretty much defined the rest of my life. In the U.S., I'm Cuban, Cuban-American, Latina by virtue of being Cuban, a Cuban journalist, a Cuban writer, somebody's Cuban lover, a Cuban dyke, a Cuban girl on a bus, a Cuban exploring Sephardic roots, always and endlessly Cuban. I'm more Cuban here than I am in Cuba, by sheer contrast and repetition."[4]

Sexuality

Obejas identifies as a lesbian and frequently references sexuality in her writing. Although she often writes about her characters' struggles with sexuality and family acceptance, in an interview with Chicago LGBT newspaper Windy City Times, she said she did not experience significant family problems because of her sexuality:

"Remember, Cuba was known as the brothel of the Caribbean prior to the revolution. People went to Cuba to do the things they couldn't do in their home countries, but were free to do there. So Cubans have a sort of thick skin to most sexual stuff, which is not to say that my parents did, but as a general rule in the environment and the culture, there's a lot more possibility. I never had any sense of shame or anything like that."

On a personal level, Obejas says she always accepted her sexual identity as part of herself:

In terms of my own sexuality, I don't know what it was, but I just never blinked. I was always amazed when other people did; I was always sort of flabbergasted when people would suffer angst about it. I understood that it was taboo and all of that, but I chalked it up as a kind of a generational problem.[5]

Career

Since 1991 Obejas has worked as a reporter and, later, a freelance entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune and other publications. She earned an M.F.A from Warren Wilson College in 1993.[2] She was the Springer Lecturer in Creative Writing (2003–05) at the University of Chicago, as well as an advisor for the online prose magazine Otium.

She has also worked in higher education at various points in her career. In fall of 2005, she served as the Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Hawai'i. She was the Sor Juana visiting writer at DePaul University from 2006 to 2012. She is currently the Distinguished Visiting Writer at Mills College in Oakland, California.

In 2008, she translated Junot Diaz's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, into Spanish. The Dominican-American author's novel addresses many themes, including young adult sexuality and national identity, also present in Obejas' work.

Obejas has written the novels Ruins, Memory Mambo and Days of Awe, and the story collection We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? as well as the poetry chapbook This is What Happened in Our Other Life.

In a reflection on Obejas' work, Latina comedian Lisa Alvarado says of the writer, "Her work exudes a keen sense of humor, of irony, of compassion and is laced with the infinite small moments that make her poetry and her novels sing with the breath of real life."[6]

Journalism

Throughout her career, Obejas has worked for many different publications, including The Chicago Tribune, Windy City Times, The Advocate, Out, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Ms., The Village Voice, and The Washington Post. Currently, she writes a blog called "Citylife: Adventures in Urban Living" for Chicago Public Media. The blog covers a variety of political and social topics, including immigration and the Occupy movement.

As a Chicago Tribune columnist for nearly ten years, Obejas penned the nightlife column "After Hours". The column started when then-Friday section editor Kevin Moore asked the self-described insomniac if she would like to cover nighttime entertainment for the paper. In 2001, Obejas announced that she would no longer write the column.[7]

Although she has consistently written creatively, Obejas considers journalism her primary occupation and means of income.

Works

Novels

  • Memory Mambo (1996)
  • Days of Awe (2001)
  • Ruins (2009)

Collections

Other

Awards

Obejas has received a Pulitzer Prize for her work in a Chicago Tribune team investigation,[8] the Studs Terkel Journalism Prize, several Peter Lisagor journalism honors, and two Lambda Literary awards.[9]

She has also been a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in poetry and served residencies at Yaddo, Ragdale and the Virginia Center for the Arts.

In 2010 she was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.[10]

In 2014, she was awarded a USA Fellowship for literature.[11]

See also

References

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  2. 2.0 2.1 Contemporary Authors Online Thompson Gale, 2006.
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  4. Gregg Shapiro, "In 'AWE': Achy Obejas on her new work", Windy City Times, August 8, 2001.
  5. Tracy Baim, "Achy Obejas Talks About Cuba, Books and Sexuality", Windy City Times, January 2, 2008.
  6. "Achy Obejas, Renaissance Woman, Cuban Style", La Bloga, February 27, 2009.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. "Outspoken Cuban-American writer Achy Obejas to address IU community for Hispanic Heritage Month", Indian University, September 22, 2009.
  9. "About Achy Obejas", Gender & Women's Studies Program, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago.
  10. "Inductees to the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame".
  11. "2014 United States Artists Fellows".

External links