As an abandoned child and a runaway Jimmy Santiago Baca’s childhood was spent on the margins of society. In early adulthood he reverted again and again to a life of crime, eventually being sentenced to five years in a maximum-security prison. After years of hellish suffering on administrative segregation and in isolation, he emerges from prison a voracious reader and a skilled, self-taught writer. He miraculously discovers a deep attachment to poetry that becomes his saving grace.
Now an accomplished and celebrated author, Baca is the recipient of many honors including the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and for his memoir, A Place to Stand, he received the prestigious International Prize. In 2006 he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award, a national award that annually recognizes one GED graduate who has made outstanding contributions to society in education, justice, health, public service, and social welfare.
Devoting his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship, Baca has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities. In 2005 he created Cedar Tree, Inc., a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping others improve their lives through education.
Other books by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Poetry
Selected Poems/Poemas Selectos
Rita and Julia
Spring Poems Along the Rio Grande
Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande
C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans
Healing Earthquakes
Que Linda La Brisa/How Beautiful the Breeze Is
Immigrants in Our Own Land
Black Mesa Poems
Martin and Meditations on the South Valley
Short Stories and Essays
Adolescents on the Edge / Stories from the Edge
Working in the Dark
The Importance of a Piece of Paper
Breaking Bread with Darkness
Novel
A Glass of Water
Memoir
A Place to Stand
Film
Blood In/Blood Out
Late Blossoms
Lost Voices
Moving the River Back Home
