Marjorie Agosin, the Luella LaMer Slaner Professor in Latin American Studies and professor of Spanish at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, has been awarded the 2015 Pura Belpre Author Award for outstanding children’s literature by a Latino/a author. The award, given out by the Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association is named after Pura Belpre, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library.
Professor Agosin was honored for her novel for young readers entitled I Lived on Butterfly Hill (Antheneum, 2014). The story is about a 11-year old girl in Chile who is forced into exile due to political repression.
Dr. Agosin is a native of Chile. She is a descendent of Austrian Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.
Professor Agosin is a graduate of the University of Georgia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Indiana University.