Esmeralda Santiago

Approachable and sympathetic, Santiago engages audiences as she weaves stories from her eclectic life: how she learned English, her years of part-time study in community colleges, transfer to and graduation from Harvard University, years as a small business owner, and rise as an author of powerful, life affirming memoirs and novels. Santiago's Q&A sessions often bring testimony from listeners. Laughter and tears commingle in her inspirational presentations.

Santiago was in the middle of writing her latest, and most challenging work, Conquistadora, when she had a stroke that left her unable to comprehend what she read or wrote. In this moving presentation, Santiago describes how, on her own, she re-learned to read and write in English and in Spanish so that she could finish her book.