DePaul University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has named Pulitzer Prize-winning lesbian writer Achy Obejas as the new Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz Writer-in-Residence.
Obejas will begin the five-year post, which includes teaching assignments in the English department as well as the Latin-American and Latino Studies program, in January. She replaces Chicago native Ana Castillo, who held the post from 2001 until the spring of 2006. The chair is named in honor of the 17th-century Mexican nun who is seen as one of the earliest advocates for a woman’s right to education.
The Cuban-born Obejas is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Days of Awe (2001), which examines the tensions between public and private identities set against the backdrop of the Jewish community in Cuba. Her other major works are Memory Mambo (1996) and We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? (1994). She received the Lambda Literary Foundation’s first-place award for lesbian fiction in 2002 for Days of Awe and the same award for Memory Mambo in 1997. She also worked for more than 10 years for the Chicago Tribune where she wrote and reported on arts and culture.