Irene Vilar
Irene Vilar | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1969 (age 54–55) Arecibo, Puerto Rico[1] |
Occupation |
|
Nationality | Puerto Rican |
Alma mater | Syracuse University |
Notable awards | Guggenheim Fellow, Winner of City of Denver Office of Sustainability Community Builder 2016 Love This Place Award, Winner of City of Denver Mayor's Awards for Excellence in Arts & Culture 2017 Imagine 2020 |
Spouse | Pedro Cuperman (divorced)[2] |
Children | 2 |
Relatives | Lolita Lebrón (grandmother) |
Website | |
www |
Irene Vilar (born c. 1969) is a Puerto Rican American editor, literary agent, environmental advocate, and author of several books dealing with national and generational trauma and women's reproductive rights.
Biography
[edit]Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in 1969,[3] Vilar is the granddaughter of Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón, who participated in an assault on the United States House of Representatives in 1954.[4] After her mother's suicide in 1977, she attended boarding school in New Hampshire at age 15 before enrolling at Syracuse University where she married her literature professor, Pedro Cuperman.[4][5][6][7]
Her work The Ladies' Gallery: A Memoir of Family Secrets (originally published in 1996) was a Philadelphia Inquirer and Detroit Free Press notable book of the year, a finalist for the Mind Book of the Year Award and the Latino Book Award.[1] Her memoir, Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict (published in 2009), revealed that the author had 15 abortions in 17 years. Vilar received death threats after its publication.[6] It won the 2010 IPPY Gold Medal for Best Memoir/Autobiography and the 12th Latino Book 2nd Place Award for Best Women’s Issues.[3]
She founded her own literary agency, Vilar Creative Agency, and serves as a co-agent in the United States for Ray-Gude Mertin Literary Agency, an agency specializing in Spanish, Latin American, and Portuguese authors, which represented writers as 1998 Nobel Prize laureate Jose Saramago.[8] In 2007, Vilar founded the Colorado and Puerto Rico based non-profit Americas for Conservation + the Arts and is its current executive director.[3][9]
In 2010, Vilar was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for her nonfiction writing.[10] Also that year, she gave the keynote at the 2010 National Convention of State Senators and Legislators Hispanic Caucus on Latino Mental Health, “Severe Depressive Disorder: Overcoming Adversity and Stigma” where she talks about the trauma she experienced growing up and in her marriage.[5] She serves on the advisory council of the Colorado Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry and the Green Leadership Trust.[11]
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Vilar founded the Resilience Fund through her non-profit to help farmers restore their farms.[12]
Works
[edit]- Vilar, Irene (2009). The Ladies' Gallery: A Memoir of Family Secrets. Other Press. ISBN 9781590513736.
- Vilar, Irene (October 6, 2009). Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict. Other Press. ISBN 978-1-59051-320-0.
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Irene Vilar". Penguin Random House.
- ^ Abcarian, Robin (13 October 2009). "Abortion as an addiction". LA Times. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
- ^ a b c "Irene Vilar". afca. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ a b Memoir of a former abortion addict from the Los Angeles Times 13 October 2009
- ^ a b "Denver Urban Spectrum". www.denverurbanspectrum.com. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ a b Death Threats, Hate Mail for 'Abortion Addict' Author from ABC News 14 October 2009
- ^ Ojito, Mirta (1998-05-26). "Shots That Haunted 3 Generations; A Family's Struggles in the Aftermath of an Attack on Congress". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ "Irene Vilar | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ "Latino eco-festival hosts big stars, bigger ideas". Grist. 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Irene Vilar". Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ "Outdoor Recreation Advisory Group". Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade. Archived from the original on 2019-12-20. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ^ Cuevas, Mayra (19 September 2018). "Meet the Puerto Rican sisterhood reinventing the island's future after Maria". CNN. Retrieved 2019-12-31.