Quick Facts
Biography
Maria Espinosa (b. Paula Cronbach, 1939) is an American novelist, poet, and translator.
Personal life
Espinosa was born January 6, 1939 in Boston Massachusetts to sculptor Robert Cronbach and a poet mother, Maxine Cronbach. She grew up on Long Island with two younger brothers, Michael Cronbach, and Lee Cronbach, a musician.She attended Harvard and Columbia Universities and received an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. While living in Paris, she met and married Mario Espinosa Wellmann, a writer and photographer. Their marriage was tumultuous and lasted only a few years. In 1978 she married Walter Selig, a research chemist who fled from Nazi Germany as a child. Most of her adult life she has lived in Northern California. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has one daughter from her first marriage, Carmen Espinosa, a dancer and social worker.
Career
At Harvard Espinosa studied with postmodern American novelist John Hawkes. While at Columbia she sent corresponded with Anais Nin, who strongly encouraged her writing. In the 1970'sshe studied with Leonard Bishop at private workshops held in people's homes in Berkeley, California.She has taught at New College of California, City College of San Francisco, as a guest writer at the University of Adelaide, Australia, andhas mentored women with the Afghan Women's Writing Project. She has led many informal writing workshops. Her poetry, articles translations, and short fiction have appeared in numerous anthologies.
Awards
- 1996 American Book Award for Longing.
- 2010 PEN Oakland awards Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence.
Works
Poetry
- Love Feelings, Four Winds, 1967
- Night Music, The Tides, 1969
Novels
- Longing. Cayuse Press. 1986. ISBN 978-0-933529-01-4.(reprint Arte Publico Press, 1995, ISBN 978-1-55885-145-0)
- Dark Plums. Arte Publico Press. 1995. ISBN 978-1-55885-128-3.
- Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew. Wings Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0-930324-79-7.
- Dying Unfinished. Wings Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-916727-45-1.
Translation
- George Sand (1982). Lélia. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20246-8.
- Sand, George (1991). STORY OF MY LIFE, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE SAND, a Group Translation Edited by Thelma Jurgrau. SUNY series, Women Writers in Translation. ISBN 978-0791405819.
Anthologies
- Roberta Fernández, ed. (1994). In other words: literature by Latinas of the United States. Arte Público Press. ISBN 978-1-55885-110-8.
- Wood, Jamie Martinez (June 1, 2007). LATINO WRITERS AND JOURNALISTS. Facts on File; 1 edition. ISBN 978-0816064229.
- Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Volume 30. Gale. 1999. ISBN 9780787619756.