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Judith Ortiz Cofer: 1952—: Poet, Novelist, Educator Biography

Childhood Filled With Confusing Moves, Discovered Poetry After College, Writing Focused On Maintaining Identity



Judith Ortiz Cofer: 1952—: Poet, novelist, educator.

Best known for her poetry and novels on the meaning of identity and ethnicity, Judith Ortiz Cofer used her often rootless childhood as a basis for some of her most well known works. Many critics feel it is the journey that Ortiz Cofer takes her readers on that so many readers can relate to, a quest of sorts to discover what it means to be a person in a specific place and culture. As Ortiz Cofer said in a 2000 interview with Bridget Kevane, "The Poetic Truth: An Interview with Judith Ortiz Cofer," she does not write "for self-expression but for self-discovery." Her writing is like "deep analysis," that allows the writer and the reader to discover something that had hitherto been unknown.



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