Stella Pope Duarte was born and raised in la Sonorita barrio in South Phoenix. She began her literary career in 1995 after she had a dream in which her deceased father told her that her destiny was to become a writer.
Her first collection of short stories,
Fragile Night (Bilingual Review Press, 1997), won a creative writing fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and was named a candidate for the prestigious Pen West Fiction Award. In 2001, Duarte was awarded a second creative writing fellowship for her current novel,
Let Their Spirits Dance (Harper Collins, 2002).
Duarte’s work has won awards and honors nationwide, including a nomination for the Pushcart Prize in Literature. Currently, Duarte is Chair of Counseling for Cesar Chavez High School in
Laveen, Arizona, and also teaches as adjunct faculty for the University of Phoenix and Arizona State University.
Graphic design elements by
Sullivan Santamaria Design
