Pat Mora's Adult Biography

Pat's two nonfiction titles, Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle and her acclaimed memoir House of Houses, are available this fall in paperback. Choice reviewed Nepantla as, "Twenty inspiring essays written in a very poetic prose...A valuable contribution to American literature." The Washington Post described House as a "textual feast...a regenerative act...and an eloquent bearer of the old truth that it is through the senses that we apprehend love."

Pat is also the author of six poetry collections. "Ms. Mora's poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes," wrote The New York Times of Agua Santa: Holy Water. Last year Tucson Weekly wrote that her sixth collection, Adobe Odes,"turns its back on hopelessness and finds a way to delight in our everyday world of food, literature, nature, religion and yes, people." Aunt Carmen's Book of Practical Saints, Communion, Borders, and Chants are her other poetry colletions.

Pat received Honorary Doctorates in Letters from North Carolina State University and SUNY Buffalo and is an Honorary Member of the American Library Association. Among her other awards are the 2006 National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award and a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship to write in Umbria, Italy. She was a Visiting Carruthers Chair at the University of New Mexico, a recipient and judge of the Poetry Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a recipient and advisor of the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowships.

The author of many award-winning children's books, Pat is the founder of the family literacy initiative El día de los niños / El día de los libros, Children's Day / Book Day ("Día") , now housed at the American Library Association. The year-long commitment to linking all children to books, languages and cultures, of sharing what Pat calls "bookjoy," culminates in celebrations across the country in April.

Pat is a popular national speaker shaped by the U.S.- Mexico border where she was born and spent much of her life. She is married to Vern Scarborough and is the mother of three grown children. Pat gratefully lives in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico.