Episode 13| S2: Latinx young adult literature

Cristina Herrera earned her PhD in English from Claremont Graduate University and is Professor and Director of Chicano/Latino Studies at Portland State University. Born and raised in Oxnard, California, she is a second-generation Chicana. Her book, ChicaNerds in Chicana Young Adult Literature: Brown and Nerdy (2020) was published in Routledge’s Children’s Literature and Culture Series and was the first monograph published on YA literature by Chicana authors. Cristina’s co-authored book (with Trevor Boffone), Latinx Teens: U.S. Popular Culture on the Page, Stage, and Screen, was published in 2022 with University of Arizona Press. Cristina is also the author of the 2014 study, Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re)Writing the Maternal Script and has co-edited multiple books on Latinx literature, including the first book-length volume on Chicanx children’s literature, Voices of Resistance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Chican@ Children’s Literature (with Laura Alamillo and Larissa Mercado-López, Rowman and Littlefield, 2017). Her co-edited volume (with Trevor Boffone), Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature, was published in spring 2020 with University Press of Mississippi. Cristina has published articles in Chicana/Latina Studies, Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, Children’s Literature, The Lion and the Unicorn, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, and other journals. She is currently working on a number of collaborative book projects on Latinx YA literature and youth cultures. In her free time, she enjoys reading, taking her dogs to the park and the beach, and exploring Portland’s delicious food scene.