SONIA RIVERA-VALDÉS (Cuba), is a writer, literary and film critic, and a professor of Spanish Language and Literature at York College. She was born in Cuba, and now lives in New York. In January of 1997, she won the Casa de Las Américas literary prize, one of the most prestigious awards in Latin America, with Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda (The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda), a book of short stories about the intimate lives of Latino immigrants in New York. Her second book, Historias de mujeres grandes y chiquitas, was published by Editorial Campana, New York, in 2003. The translation of this book to English, Stories of Little Women and Grown Up Girls, will be published by Editorial Campana in 2007. Sonia’s articles and stories have been extensively published in anthologies and literary magazines in the United States and other countries.

For the past twenty-six years, Sonia has worked to promote Cuban and Latin American culture in the United States, as well as establishing cultural links between Latin America and the United States. She currently is the president of Latino Artists Round Table (LART). Sonia also collaborates with the Tertulia de Escritoras Dominicanas in New York, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Dominican Studies Association.