Cherrie Moraga

American writer, editor, playwright, essayist and activist. Moraga's experiences as the child of a poor Latina and an Anglo American, and her realization of her homosexuality all figure strongly in her work. "When I finally lifted the lid to my lesbianism, a profound connection with my mother reawakened in me. It wasn't until I acknowledged and confronted my own lesbianism in the flesh, that my heartfelt identification with and empathy for my mother's oppression--due to being poor, uneducated, and Chicana--was realized." After earning her B.A. in 1974, Moraga taught high school in Los Angeles for three years. In the evening, she took a writing class and turned out her first Lesbian love poems. Moving to San Francisco, she earned in MA from San Francisco State in 1980. The following year, she co-edited an anthology, "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color." The editors could not find a publisher and so she co-founded a publishing company Kitchen Table/Women of Color Press. The book went on to win the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 1986. Moraga's writing talent extends to writing plays. A member of a Theatre Communications Group she received the NEA Theatre Playwriting Fellowship Award. Her play, "Watsonville: Some Place Not Here," won the Fund For New American Plays Award, from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. At age 40, she made the decision to have a child. Her 1997 book "Waiting in the Wings" grew out of her diary entries made during her pregnancy her son's early years. Link to Wikipedia biography