By Peter Cleary
A Mexican American author with multiple bestselling titles, a great teaching career, profound knowledge of creative writing and Naperville residence ?is due to speak February 6th.
?Luis Alberto Urrea?has close ties to Naperville North; two of his children attended and graduated from NNHS. Eric (?07), his son, was drummer in the music program, and daughter Megan (?10) was a yearbook editor. His youngest daughter is a future Huskie, and is currently enrolled at Washington Junior High.
?NNHS feels like family to me,? said Urrea.
Urrea will cover both the fine points of creative writing as well as the culture behind Mexican immigration in two separate speeches due to take place 2nd period and 3rd period, respectively. His books are also being sold in the NNHS library.
His understanding of American and Mexican culture, as well as his own life experiences, have lead Urrea to write both fiction and nonfiction that expand to cover and further explore topics of love, loss, victory and defeat.
Urrea?s writing schedule is irregular and not always consistent.
?My writing schedule is as seasonal as a garden: when it?s time to sprout, my world is nothing but flowers. In other words, when the time is right, I am totally there,? Urrea said.
Born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother, Urrea?s love of reading assisted him in discovering his writing ability when he was just in high school.
Reading was not solely responsible for Urrea?s writing epiphany in high school. He also participated in drama.
?Acting and writing seemed to go so well together,? said Urrea.
Urrea had a talent for writing poetry that developed into a remarkable career of both fiction and nonfiction that was finally realized in 1993 with the publication of his first book Across the Wire.
Urrea achieved success and a gradual increase in readers with publications such as The Fever of Being, Nobody?s Son: Notes from an American Life, and Six Kinds of Sky before releasing perhaps his most critically-acclaimed work, The Devil?s Highway, which made Urrea a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Lannan Literary Award.
??????????? Urrea?s success continues to today with Into the Beautiful North, The Hummingbird?s Daughter, and its sequel and Urrea?s most recent title, Queen of America. Three more groundbreaking fictional novels heavily influenced and perhaps made possible by one man?s amazing back-story and especially by his unprecedented literary talent.
Urrea is not limited to the past and present. The future gleams with new opportunity.
?I am always working on a new project. I have about four, if not five, books cooking in my study,? says Urrea.
?Urrea is eager for his presentation at North.
??I made sure I was coming to North; I couldn?t let Nequa Valley have all the fun.?
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Source: http://nnhsnorthstar.naperville203.org/?p=3318
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