Erika L. Sanchez

Erika L. Sanchez is a renowned writer and poet from America, who is fond of writing young adult and contemporary books and poetry. She is particularly well known for her collection of poetry called Lessons On Expulsion. The young adult book written by author Sanchez has been a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for the Literatue of Young People. Author Sanchez’s parents were immigrants from Mexico. Nowadays, she lives in Cicero, Illinois. Author Sanchez completed her graduation from the Illinois University in Chicago and then joined the New Mexico University to earn an M.F.A in Poetry. Sanchez was awarded with the Poetry Fellowship of Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargeant Rosenberg. The first poetry collection written by her was published by the Graywolf publishers in 2015. This collection was included in the best poetry list by The Washington Post and is regarded as a fierce and assertive debut. Kathleen Rooney from The New York Times praised author Sanchez’s wrenching explorations of shame, guilt, misogyny, and grief, as well as her depictions of hurt, haunt, and misery. Sanchez was particularly praised for using second person narrative as a means of drawing closer to the difficult subjects. In 2017, a poet laureate of the US named Tracy Smith recommended author Sanchez as one of the best voices in new age poetry. As a child, Sanchez grew up in the town of the Mexican working class called Cicero. Her apartment was very close to Chicago and was situated on southwest side border of the city. Being the child of undocumented Mexican immigrants, author Sanchez always had the determination of defying borders of all kinds. She had her role model at that time as Lisa Simpson, who still continues to be her inspiration. Such an upbringing helped her become an achiever and a feminist at a very young age. She went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude and Phi Kappa Beta from University of Illinois. Following this, she toured Madrid, Spain on Fullbright Scholarship. It was here that author Sanchez started writing poems during the night time. Sanchez was also involved in teaching English in a secondary school. Throughout her tour, she ate numerous delicious meat dishes. When her scholarship ended, Sanchex shifted to Albuquerque, New Mexico. There she enrolled herself for a course in Creative Writing and obtained an MFA.