Johanny Vazquez Paz

Johanny Vázquez Paz
Born	Johanny Vázquez Paz 1960 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Occupation	Poet, short story writer and professor
Alma mater	Indiana State University (B.A., sociology, 1984), University of Illinois at Chicago (M.A., Hispanic Studies)
Notable awards	International Latino Book Award, PEN Beyond Margins Award, Pushcart Prize

Johanny Vázquez Paz (born 1960) is a Puerto Rican poet, narrator and professor.

Johanny Vázquez Paz was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She received her primary and secondary education in Catholic schools in Santurce. This experience and her journeys through the different barrios of Santurce have been sources of inspiration for many poems and storys she has written and published. In 1979 she left for the United States to complete a bachelor's degree in sociology from Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana. Upon completing her baccalaureate she returned to Puerto Rico until 1986 when she moved to Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago she completed a master's degree in Hispanic Studies with a specialization in literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Currently she is a professor of Spanish at Harold Washington College in Chicago.

In 2001 Vásquez Paz co-edited the anthology Between the Heart and the Land/Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest by the Chicano poet Brenda Cárdenas. The anthology won first prize from the organization Chicago Women in Publishing in 2002.

In 2007 the New York editorial Mayapple Press published her bilingual poetry book Poemas callejeros/Streetwise Poems which won honorable mention in the Butterfly Award category for first book published at the International Latino Book Awards in California in 2008. It was also nominated for the 2007 PEN Beyond Margins award and 2007 Pushcart Prize. The poem "Cada familia", included in the book, was put to music by Argentine composer Luis Jahn and included in his CD Compromiso.

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