Irene Vilar
Puerto Rican writer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Irene Vilar (born c. 1969) is a Puerto Rican American editor, literary agent, environmental advocate, and author of several books dealing with national and generational trauma and women's reproductive rights.
Irene Vilar | |
|---|---|
| |
| Born | c. 1969 (age 56–57) |
| Education | Syracuse University |
| Occupations | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Lolita Lebrón |
| Website | www |
Biography
Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in 1969,[1] Vilar is the granddaughter of Puerto Rican nationalist Lolita Lebrón, who participated in an assault on the United States House of Representatives in 1954.[2] After her mother's suicide in 1977, she attended boarding school in New Hampshire at age 15 before enrolling at Syracuse University where she married her literature professor, Pedro Cuperman.[2][3][4][5]
Her work The Ladies' Gallery: A Memoir of Family Secrets (originally published in 1996) was a Philadelphia Inquirer and Detroit Free Press notable book of the year, a finalist for the Mind Book of the Year Award and the Latino Book Award. Her memoir, Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict (published in 2009), revealed that the author had 15 abortions in 17 years. Vilar received death threats after its publication.[4] It won the 2010 IPPY Gold Medal for Best Memoir/Autobiography and the 12th Latino Book 2nd Place Award for Best Women’s Issues.[1]
She founded her own literary agency, Vilar Creative Agency, and serves as a co-agent in the United States for Ray-Gude Mertin Literary Agency, an agency specializing in Spanish, Latin American, and Portuguese authors, which represented writers as 1998 Nobel Prize laureate Jose Saramago.[6] In 2007, Vilar founded the Colorado and Puerto Rico based non-profit Americas for Conservation + the Arts and is its current executive director.[1][7]
In 2010, Vilar was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for her nonfiction writing.[8] Also that year, she gave the keynote at the 2010 National Convention of State Senators and Legislators Hispanic Caucus on Latino Mental Health, “Severe Depressive Disorder: Overcoming Adversity and Stigma” where she talks about the trauma she experienced growing up and in her marriage.[3] She serves on the advisory council of the Colorado Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry and the Green Leadership Trust.[9]
After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Vilar founded the Resilience Fund through her non-profit to help farmers restore their farms.[10]
Works
- Vilar, Irene (2009). The Ladies' Gallery: A Memoir of Family Secrets. Other Press. ISBN 9781590513736.
- Vilar, Irene (October 6, 2009). Impossible Motherhood: Testimony of an Abortion Addict. Other Press. ISBN 978-1-59051-320-0.
