© 2024 KRWG
News that Matters.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Luis Alberto Urrea's Journey "Into the Beautiful North"

Las Cruces, NM – On this edition of PUENTES, bridges to the community, host Emily Guerra spoke with Luis Alberto Urrea, award-winning author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and also a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago. On Tuesday evening, March 13th at 7:30 he will be at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts in Las Cruces as part of his tour for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read Project with his book, “Into the Beautiful North.” Urrea is also on a book tour with his newly released novel, “The House of Broken Angels.”

Fair-haired Urrea was born in Tijuana, Mexico to an American Mother and Mexican Father of Irish and Basque descent. Like many of our current young DACA recipients, his parents brought him north to the United States. At the age of five his parents took him north because of tuberculosis and moved across the border into San Diego. As a young adult he continued to journey north into Colorado, north-east into Massachusetts and now lives in the mid-west/Illinois with his family.

Urrea’s achievements are beyond a child’s wildest dreams. He has written 17 books, 5 non-fiction, 8 fiction, 3 poetry books and others; and was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for the true story, “The Devil’s Highway.” A list of his books and a current book tour schedule are available on his website www.luisurrea.com. Information for the Big Read Project in Las Cruces is online at www.honors.nmsu.edu. A poignant interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air is available on www.npr.org/freshair.

Related Content