Erika L. Sánchez

Erika L. Sánchez's acclaimed young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, was nominated for the National Book Award in Young People's Literature and was an instant New York Times bestseller. A novelist, essayist, poet and self-described "cheerleader" for young women, she seeks to amplify the stories and voices of marginalized people everywhere through the power of storytelling. Sánchez has received numerous grants and accolades in support of her work from the Poetry Foundation, the CantoMundo Prize, Bread Loaf Scholarship, the Guild Complex of Chicago, and the Boston Review. As a journalist, she’s been featured in The Guardian, Jezebel, Rolling Stone, Salon, Buzzfeed, and Cosmopolitan, and released her first book of poetry, Lessons on Expulsion, to acclaim from outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. Recently, she was awarded the Princeton Arts Fellowship and currently teaches in the creative writing department at Princeton University.

Recommended Reading

• Erika L. Sánchez on "Going Mainstream and Not Being Perfect"
• "Three Questions for Erika L. Sánchez and Her YA Novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter"
• NBC News profiles Erika L. Sánchez