Sisneros Sandra

American writer and poet. Born on December 20, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois. One of seven children and the only daughter, she has written extensively about the Latina experience in the United States. Cisneros is best known for The House on Mango Street (1984), which tells the story of a young Latina woman coming of age in Chicago. The novel has sold more than two million copies.

Cisneros has explored many literary forms in her work. She wrote several collections of poetry, including My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), which was well received by critics. She created an impressionistic portrait of life on the border between the United States and Mexico through a series of vignettes in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991).

Cisneros has received numerous awards for her work, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1995 and the Texas Medal of the Arts Award in 2003. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.