Being Imperfect with Erika Sánchez

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with award-winning author Erika Sánchez, joined in conversation by Cynthia Pelayo.

Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, was a New York Times bestseller, National Book Award finalist, and Tomás Rivera Award winner. Recognized by Time as one of the best young adult novels of all time, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has also been adapted for the stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater and is being made into a film directed by America Ferrera.

Erika’s critically acclaimed memoir-in-essays, Crying in the Bathroom, won the Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction award. She was a Fulbright Scholar, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent fellow from the Poetry Foundation, a Princeton Arts Fellow, a recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She lives in Chicago with her family.

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award winning and International Latino Book Award winning author and poet. She writes fairy tales that blend genre. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, and The Shoemaker’s Magician.

This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present (ILP), a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. ILP is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.

Register for this event and receive the Zoom link here.

ILP is committed to inclusion and accessibility. To request accommodations, email Illinois Libraries Present.

Find books by Erika L. Sánchez in the library collection.

Find books by Cynthia Pelayo in the library collection.

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