Demetria Martinez (born July 10, 1960) is an American activist, poet, and novelist.

Early life

She was born on July 10, 1960, where she was raised by her grandmother in

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

. She is a graduate of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

with BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 1988, Martinez was charged with conspiracy for allegedly transporting two Salvadoran women refugees into the United States; she was working as a freelance reporter covering religion and the Sanctuary movement, Sanctuary Movement at the time. She was later acquitted of the charges. During the trial, prosecutors used Martinez's poem "Nativity, For Two Salvadoran Women" in an attempt to build a case against her, a decision Martinez has called a "major error."

Career

Martinez worked as a religion reporter for the ''Albuquerque Journal'' in August 1986. She has been an editor for the ''National Catholic Review'' in Tucson, Arizona, since 1990, and teaches in the annual William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Activism

Martinez has been associated with the Sanctuary movement, Sanctuary Movement and with Enlace Comunitario, an Albuquerque-based organization that serves immigrant families experiencing domestic violence.

Awards

* Latino Book Awards, International Latino Book Award for best biography (2006): ''Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana'' (University of Oklahoma Press, 2005) * Western States Book Award for fiction: ''Mother Tongue''
Ballintine
1994) * Thirteenth Annual Chicano Literary Arts Contest (first prize: poem): "Turning"
Bilingual Press Review
1989) * American Book Award (2013)

Published works

* ''Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry'' (includes the poem "Turning"), Bilingual Press/Review (Tempe, AZ), 1989 *
MotherTongue
', Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue (Tempe, AZ), 1994, translated into Spanish by Ana Maria de la Fuente and published as Lengua madre, Seix Barral (Barcelona, Spain), 1996 *''Breathing between the Lines: Poems'', University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 1997 *''The Devil's Workshop'', University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2002 *''Confessions of a Berlitz-Tape Chicana'' (Chicana and Chicano Visions of the Americas series) *''The Block Captain's Daughter'' (Chicana and Chicano Visions of the Americas series)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Demetria American women novelists Hispanic and Latino American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women poets Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni 1960 births Living people Writers from Albuquerque, New Mexico 20th-century American poets 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets 21st-century American women writers American Book Award winners