Giannina Braschi, one of the most revolutionary voices in Latin America today, wrote the postmodern poetry classic EMPIRE OF DREAMS and the Spanglish tour de force novel YO-YO BOING! The Associated Press praised Braschi’s explosive new book UNITED STATES OF BANANA (2011) as a work of unlimited imagination and fearless language. AmazonCrossing (a sponsor of the PEN World Voices Festival) is the proud publisher of Braschi’s complete works in Spanish, Spanglish, and English. She writes in these three languages to express the enculturation process of millions of Hispanic immigrants to the USA and to explore the three politic options of her native Puerto Rico–Nation, Colony or State. She has won grant/awards from National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Ford, Danforth, and Reed Foundations, Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, and PEN American Center, among others. She has also served as judge for the PEN book awards.
