As a teen-ager, the writer Demetria Martínez, kept a diary where she recounted the problems she faced as a shy, somewhat overweight girl. Following graduation from Princeton University in 1982, she began to write poetry. A collection titled Turning appeared in print five years later. Involved with the Sanctuary Movement, a group that provided shelter to refugees, Martínez’ sympathy with the cause as evidenced from her writings, was used against her in a court of law; she allegedly smuggled two Salvadoran immigrants into the country. Cleared of the charges, the writer continues to fight for social justice. Her best-known work, Mother Tongue was published in 1997 and received the Western States Award in Fiction. That same year she published her second collection of poetry, Breathing between the Lines, and in 2002 she published The Devil’s Workshop.

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Demetria Martínez VG/ Voices from the Gaps National Catholic Reporter Collected Works Bookstore Northern Arizona Book Festival	The Hudson Valley Writers' Center Images Videos