Mills College's Professor Christina Garcia Wins Northern California Book Award

OAKLAND, CA (05/14/2008)(readMedia)-- Cristina Garcia, distinguished visiting writer at Mills College, has won the 27th Northern California Book Award in fiction for her fourth novel, A Handbook to Luck (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007). She was honored at a ceremony and book reading on April 13, 2008 at the San Francisco Main Library.

"I was thrilled and delighted to get this happy news. California, of all places, is home to millions of new immigrants who are striving each day to reinvent themselves," said Garcia. "My book is a testament to their struggles."

Garcia's novel traces the political and familial issues challenging three immigrant children. She depicts their desire to make sense of the world and their resilience as they grow into adulthood. Laura Ciolkowski of the Chicago Tribune described the novel as "pitch perfect," and Rosie Molinary of Ms. magazine noted, "A Handbook to Luck shines with vulnerable characters, poetic language, and poignant epiphanies."

Born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in New York City, Garcia has been hailed as one of the most important Cuban American voices in American literature. Her first novel, Dreaming in Cuban (1992), was nominated for a National Book Award and has been widely translated. She is also the author of the novels Monkey Hunting (2003) and The Aguero Sisters (1997), and she edited Cubanismo! The Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature (2003).

Her other works include Bordering Fires, the Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a Literature and a newly released children's picture book, The Dog Who Loved the Moon.

Garcia has received a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, and a Hodder fellowship at Princeton University. The annual Northern California Book Award recognizes the best published works in fiction, poetry, general nonfiction, creative nonfiction, children's literature, and translation. The 2008 awards were presented by the Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, the Center for the Art of Translation, the Mechanics' Institute, PEN West, the San Francisco Public Library, and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California, Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering a dynamic progressive education that fosters leadership, social responsibility, and creativity to approximately 900 undergraduate women and 500 graduate women and men. Since 2000, applications to Mills College have more than doubled. The College ranks as one of the top colleges in the West by U.S. News & World Report and one of the Best 366 Colleges by the Princeton Review. For more information, visit www.mills.edu.