Aida Salazar is an award-winning Mexican-American author, translator, and arts advocate who explores themes of identity and social justice in her work. Her debut book, The Moon Within, won International Latino Book Award.
Aida Salazar was born in Mexico and raised in Southeast Los Angeles as one of seven children. She vividly recalls her childhood, imagining little puddles of water on cement as the vast ocean.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Aida produced festivals, events, protests, artist residencies, and conferences for various groups, non-profits, youth, and popular movements.
She earned an MFA in Writing from the California Institute of the Arts. Salazar has performed or read at cultural centers, cafes, alternative art spaces, and universities throughout the Southwest and Latin America.
Her debut middle-grade novel, The Moon Within (2019), has received widespread acclaim. The New York Times considers it "Important," while Kirkus Reviews deems it a worthy successor to "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." Juan Felipe Herrera, the US Poet Laureate, describes it as "revolutionary and culturally ecstatic."
The book has garnered numerous awards, including the International Latino Book Award for Middle-Grade Fiction, a Golden Poppy Award, a Nerdy Book Award, and more.
Aida's second novel, The Land Of The Cranes (2020), also in verse, has earned multiple awards, including the Américas Award and the NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor. It tells the story of a young girl and her pregnant mother held in an immigration detention facility. Kirkus praises the book as "powerful… lyrical… soaring…" while Publisher's Weekly calls it "Lyrical, passionate, and all-too timely."
Her latest work, A Seed In The Sun (2022), is a historical fiction verse novel set during the 1965 UFW grape boycott, inspired by Dolores Huerta. It has received high praise, winning the Tomás Rivera Children's Book Award and being recognized as a top 10 book of the year by the American Library Association's RISE: Feminist Book Project.
Aida has also contributed to and edited various anthologies, and she has translated picture books into Spanish and English. Her talents extend beyond writing, as she has performed at various venues and taught visual art, poetry, and fiction to students of all ages.
Aida Salazar lives in Oakland with her husband and two artistically inclined teenagers. Aida is continuously working on essays about healing and children's stories.
Photo Credit: www.aidasalazar.com