Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954. She and her six brothers grew up in Mexico and Chicago. Cisneros earned a B.A. in English from Loyola University of Chicago and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Her books of poetry include Loose Woman (Knopf, 1994), My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), The Rodrigo Poems (1985), and Bad Boys (1980). She is also the author of Caramelo (2003); Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), which won the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and The House on Mango Street (1984), which won the American Book Award in 1985; and a bilingual children's book, Hairs: Pelitos (1994). Her articles and reviews have appeared in publications including Glamour, The New York Times, and Revista Chicano-Riquena. Among her honors are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation. She has taught many colleges and universities, including the University of California, University of Michigan, and the University of New Mexico. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.