World Literature: Sandra Cisneros Celebrates 40 Years of The House on Mango Street

City of Asylum welcomes Sandra Cisneros to Pittsburgh to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her contemporary classic, The House on Mango Street.

“Visiting the Pilsen section of Chicago recently, I thought of Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street—how it was born on these streets, grew wings, and is now being celebrated in a 40th-anniversary edition by Everyman’s Library (as well as an opera at the Glimmerglass Festival). Generations have come of age with its whip-smart, soulful narrator, Esperanza Cordero, who yearns for a “house of her own.” This small, irrepressible book—with its hopscotch-like epiphanies—has provided a fictional home to them all.” —Anderson Tepper, Curator for World Literature at City of Asylum 

The House on Mango Street is a national bestseller and one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. The novel is acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.” This year marks the release of a special 40th anniversary hardcover edition of the beloved coming-of-age novel with a new introduction by John Phillip Santos.  

Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous novel is a celebration of the power of telling your own story and of being proud of where you’re from. 

You can purchase your own copy of Sandra’s book, The House on Mango Street, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

About the Author:

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, national and international book awards, including the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts. More recently, she received the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized with the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and won the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two nonprofits she founded: the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. As a single woman she made the choice to have books instead of children. A citizen of both the United States and Mexico, Cisneros currently lives in San Miguel de Allende and makes her living by her pen.

About the Moderator:

Anderson Tepper is City of Asylum’s Curator of World Literature. He has been a guest curator of PEN America’s World Voices Festival and is a longstanding member of the international committee of the Brooklyn Book Festival. He writes on books and authors for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and World Literature Today. Anderson also serves on the City of Asylum Advisory Board.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant Cucina Alfabeto is open for brunch from 12-3pm, and for dinner from 5-9pm. Please visit Open Table or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.

The bar will be open during the program.