"Poetry is about going into those places that are taboo for us and exploring and really clearing out your demons and celebrating things that maybe only you want to celebrate. It is such a private act and so necessary when we are going through difficult dark times as we are now as a collective, as a nation, as a global community." -- Sandra Cisneros

Dec. 15, 2022 -- This week REPORT FROM SANTA FE presents a new interview with iconic author Sandra Cisneros discussing

her classic novel "The House on Mango Street" and her new volume of poetry "Woman Without Shame."

Cisneros’ newly published book of poetry "Woman Without Shame" came out in September 2022 and immediately made

the Time Magazine List of the 100 Must Read Books in 2022.

It has been twenty-eight years since Sandra Cisneros published her earlier book of poetry "Loose Woman." With dozens of never-before-seen poems, Woman Without Shame is a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist.

In this new in-depth interview, Sandra describes giving herself the birthday party she always wanted. For her 60th birthday she made herself a "cake" skirt that looked like she was jumping out of a cake and required that invited guests come dressed as pastry. She addresses issues about aging, lamenting that nobody really tells us the truth about aging. "This is a poet of the senses, writing the body, embracing the older self in the mirror but never forgetting the bodies of the dead..." states poet Martin Espada about Cisneros' poetry in "Woman Without Shame."

Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Cisneros’s novel "The House on Mango Street" has been translated into over 25 languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation. In 2009 a 25th Anniversary edition of "Mango Street" was published. Other popular books written by Cisneros include "Woman Hollering Creek," "Caramelo," and a collection of stories from her life called "A House of My Own."

Sandra Cisneros' numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Genius Fellowship, national and international book awards, including the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts. More recently, she received the Ford Foundation's Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized with the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and won the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.

As a single woman she made the choice to have books instead of children. A citizen of both the United States and Mexico, Cisneros currently lives in San Miguel de Allende and makes her living by her pen.

QUOTE from Sandra Cisneros

"Writing is about healing yourself. And there are so many things that lodge in our heart that we wish we could forget and the way for me, that I have learned how to transform those demons, is to write about them."