She graduated with distinction.Įrika has received a CantoMundo Fellowship, Bread Loaf Scholarship, and the 2013 'Discovery'/Boston Review Prize. She did not love Albuquerque but was pleased with the clear skies and ample parking. After her scholarship, Erika moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where she received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico. There, she wrote poems late into the night, taught English at a secondary school, and ate a medley of delicious cured meats. Ever since she was a 12-year-old nerd in giant bifocals, she's dreamt of becoming a successful writer.Įrika graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from the University of Illinois at Chicago, then went onto Madrid, Spain on a Fulbright Scholarship. As a result, she was a young and sometimes overbearing (but in a cute way?) feminist and overachiever. Her role model was-and continues to be-Lisa Simpson.

And, not surprisingly, her clothes perpetually smelled of fried tortillas when she was a child. (Maybe she tried this, maybe she didn't.)Īs a daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants, Erika has always been determined to defy borders of any kind.

In fact, her childhood apartment was so close to Chicago that she could hit it with her shoe if she flung it out the window. She has recently been appointed the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Chair in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department at DePaul University and is part of the inaugural core faculty of the Randolph College Low Residency MFA Program.Įrika grew up in the Mexican working class town of Cicero, Illinois, which borders the city's southwest side. She was a 2017-2019 Princeton Arts Fellow, and a recent recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. Her debut young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, published in October 2017 by Knopf Books for Young Readers, is a New York Times Bestseller and a National Book Awards finalist. A poet, novelist, and essayist, her debut poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion, was published by Graywolf in July 2017, and was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Not your perfect mexican daughter