Ilan Stavans has been called the czar of Latino culture in the United States by the New York Times and Latin America's liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast by the Washington Post. Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College and the recipient of numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Latino Literature Prize, the Antonia Pantoja Award, Chile's Presidential Medal, and the Ruben Dario Distinction. He earned an Emmy nomination as host of the PBS show La Plaza: Conversations with Ilan Stavans. He has taught at Columbia University, Oberlin College, and Smith College, among other institutions. He is the author of numerous titles including Encyclopedia Latina (2005) and the forthcoming Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latin Music.

Contents
Series Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Appreciations
Saddling La Gringa: Major Themes in the Works of Latina Writers
Chicana Feminist Criticism
What Doesn't Kill You, Makes You Fat: The Language of Food in Latina Literature
New Ways of Telling: Latinas' Narratives of Exile and Return
Gloria Anzaldas Queer Mestisaje
Form over Content
II.Testimonios
Between the Milkman and the Fax Machine: Challenges to Women Writers in the Caribbean
Attempting Perfection: An Interview with Judith Ortiz Cofer
Write These Messages That Come
And Frida Looks Back: The Art of Latina/o Queer Heroics
Conversations with Ilan Stavans
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Editor and Contributors

Latina literature is one of the fastest growing areas of American literature today, and the impact Latina writers have had on the literary scene is undeniable. This volume features the most significant articles including peer-review essays, interviews, and reviews to bring together the best scholarship on Latina writers ever compiled. Learn about these authors' lives and extraordinary careers, as well as the social and political issues their works address.
10 signed articles, essays, and interviews are included in the volume, which encourage readers to examine Latina writers from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, including feminism, postmodernism, postcolonialism, gender, border, linguistic, and pan-American studies. Also featured is an introduction by Ilan Stavans, one of the foremost authorities on Latino culture, to provide historical background and cultural context and suggestions for further reading to aid students in their research.