Born in New Mexico of Indio-Mexican descent, Jimmy Santiago Baca was raised first by his grandmother and later sent to an orphanage. A runaway at age 13, it was after Baca was sentenced to five years in a maximum security prison that he began to turn his life around: he learned to read and write and unearthed a voracious passion for poetry. During a fateful conflict with another inmate, Jimmy was shaken by the voices of Neruda and Lorca, and made a choice that would alter his destiny. Instead of becoming a hardened criminal, he emerged from prison a writer. Baca sent three of his poems to Denise Levertov, the poetry editor of Mother Jones. The poems were published and became part of Immigrants in Our Own Land, published in 1979, the year he was released from prison. He earned his GED later that same year. He is the winner of the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award and for his memoir A Place to Stand the prestigious International Award. In 2006 he won the Cornelius P. Turner Award. The national award recognizes one GED graduate a year who has made outstanding contributions to society in education, justice, health, public service and social welfare.Baca has devoted his post-prison life to writing and teaching others who are overcoming hardship. His themes include American Southwest barrios, addiction, injustice, education, community, love and beyond. He has conducted hundreds of writing workshops in prisons, community centers, libraries, and universities throughout the country.In 2005 he created Cedar Tree Inc., a nonprofit foundation that works to give people of all walks of life the opportunity to become educated and improve their lives. Cedar Tree provides free instruction, books, writing material and scholarships. Cedar Tree has an ongoing writing workshop in the Albuquerque Women’s Prison and at the South Valley Community Center. Cedar Tree also has an Internship program that provides live-in writing scholarships at Wind River Ranch, and in the south valley of Albuquerque. The program allows students, writers and poets the opportunity to write, attend poetry readings, conduct writing workshops, and work on documentary film production.Baca is currently producing a two hour documentary about the power of literature and how it can change lives.Education1984 BA English, University of New Mexico.2003, PhD, Literature University of New Mexico, honorary.Selected Awards and Honors2006- Cornelius P. Turner GED Award2001-The International Prize for A Place to Stand2001-Barnes and Noble Discover Author for A Place to Stand1997- Humanitarian Award, Albuquerque1996, 97- Champion Poetry Bout, Taos, NM1995-The Endowed Hulbert Chair, Colorado College1993- Southwest Book Award1990-The International Hispanic Heritage Award1990- Berkeley Regents Chair, University of California - Berkeley1989-The Wallace Stevens Endowed Chair, Yale1989-The American Book Award for Poetry1988-The Pushcart Prize1987-The Vogelstein Foundation Award1986-National Endowments Arts Literary FellowshipBibliography:PoetryBaca, Jimmy Santiago Bi-lingual 2007Baca, Jimmy Santiago Spring Poems Along the Rio Grande. New Directions, NY, NY, 2007Baca, Jimmy Santiago Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande. New Directions, NY, NY, 2004Baca, Jimmy Santiago C-Train & 13 Mexicans. Grove/Atlantic, NY, NY, 2002.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Healing Earthquakes. Grove/Atlantic, NY, NY, 2001.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Set This Book On Fire! Cedar Hill Publications, Mena, AR, 1999.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Working in the Dark: Reflections on a Poet in the Barrio. Red Crane Press, Santa Fe, NM, 1992.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Immigrants in Our Own Land. New Directions, NY, NY, 1991.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Black Mesa Poems. New Directions, NY, NY, 1989.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Martin & Meditations on the South Valley. New Directions, NY, NY, 1987.Baca, Jimmy Santiago Poems Taken from my Yard. Timberline Press, Fulton, MO, 1986.Baca, Jimmy Santiago What's Happening Curbstone, Willimantic, Conn, 1982.NovelsBaca, Jimmy Santiago The Importance of a Piece of Paper. Grove/Atlantic, NY, NY, 2004 (short stories)Baca, Jimmy Santiago A Place To Stand. New York: Grove Press, 2001. (Memoir)Baca, Jimmy Santiago untitled Grove/Atlantic (forthcoming novel) - 2007Film/ScriptsBound by Honor (as video- Blood In, Blood Out), Disney Productions, Hollywood Pictures, 1992.Selected Site Readings/WorkshopsPoetry Center of Chicago, Colorado State University, La Luna Community College, Institute of American Indian Art, San Diego City International Book Fair, Tucson Raza Studies Conference, Safford Federal Prison, UCLA, Harvard, Butler University, Weber State University, ProLiteracy Worldwide Annual Conference, Stanford, Teachers of English Studies CA Conference, Georgetown, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Francisco, Cochise County Detention CenterSelected Radio/TV AppearancesNational Public Radio, Good Morning America, National Discovery Channel, PBS Language of Life with Bill Moyers, and CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood.
