Ruth Behar on How Being a Lucky Broken Girl Made Her a Best-Selling Author

In her new book, Letters From Cuba, Ruth Behar explores her Cuban-Jewish-American roots. Behar talks with Mitchell Kaplan about her family and her coveted hand-made books created in Cuba by poet and artist Rolando Estévez.

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This episode of The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan was recorded between Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Miami. Subscribe now on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you find your podcasts!

Ruth Behar, the Pura Belpré Award-winning author of Lucky Broken Girl, was born in Havana, Cuba, grew up in New York, and has also lived in Spain and Mexico. In addition to writing for young people, her work includes poetry, memoir, and the acclaimed travel books An Island Called Home and Traveling Heavy, which explore her return journeys to Cuba and her search for home. She was the first Latina to win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and other honors include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and being named a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation. She is an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.