Poet, historian, essayist, and social change activist, Aurora Levins Morales was raised a red-diaper baby in the mountains of Puerto Rico by her Jewish and Puerto Rican parents. She is the author of Medicine Stories: History, Culture and the Politics of Integrity and Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas (both available from South End Press). She collaborated with her mother, Rosario Morales, on Getting Home Alive (Firebrand), and contributed to Telling To Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios by the Latina Feminist Group (Duke). Her essays have appeared in Ms., Women's Review of Books, and numerous anthologies. She has directed a number of community history projects and is interested in the transformative power of people telling their own stories. She also writes twice weekly poetry-commentaries for Pacifica Radio's Flashpoints news magazine, which can be heard at www.flashpoints.net. She holds a doctorate in Women's Studies and History and lectures nationally. You can reach Aurora at StoryForge@aol.com.

Praise for Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriqueñas by Aurora Levins Morales (South End Press, 2001):

"Captivating language and enticing cadence are characteristics of the enchanting prose Levins Morales employs in this gathering of uniquely realized vignettes...Exciting melange of stories ultimately affirming the empowerment of women."

- Booklist

"There is no other book like Remedios. It is history, anthropology, poetry, and myth; it is a song and a prayer. Aurora Levins Morales is a Jewish Latina curandera who embraces diverse legacies with passion and eloquence. In stories so beautifully told they soar off the page...she offers us remedies that heal our bodies and souls and feed our spirits of our many forgotten ancestors."

- Ruth Behar, author of The Vulnerable Observer

Praise for Telling To Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios by the Latina Feminist Group (Duke, 2001):

"Telling to Live may be one of the most important books published in the last few decades. Latinas collectively have not had a book like this before that features so many different backgrounds and cultures...The inclusion of all these mix-and-match identifications is what makes this book required reading in women's studies classes all across the globe."

Jocelyn Climent, in Bust

Medicine Stories (South End Press, 1998) addresses core issues of imperialism and internalized oppression, with particular insight drawn from Aurora Levins Morales' personal experience of torture during childhood. Weaving a pattern from her roots in Puerto Rico and Chicago, her ancestral homes in New York's barrio and the shtetls of the Ukraine, Levins Morales' writing engages and inspires women and men who are ready to take responsibility for knowing and changing history.

Updated Jan. 2008