(Mary) Terri De la Peña

(Mary) Terri de la Peña (born February 20, 1947) is a Mexican American writer of novels, short stories and essays. Her works have addressed lesbian sexuality, nature, and Chicana community. De la Peña was 45 years old She is a fifth-generation Californian. Her father, Joaquin de la Peña, was descended from the Marquez family, one of the earliest families to settle in the area following the land grants parceled out in the early nineteenth century, and worked as a tire repair foreman. Publishers Weekly praised the novel for its portrayal of the loneliness and isolation of a closeted lesbian within a close-knit Chicano family. De la Peña intended the protagonist to come out at a young age and serve as a role model for Latina readers. The publication also marked de la Peña's own public coming out, as colleagues at UCLA recognized the autobiographical elements of the story; she subsequently began visiting university classes to give readings and talks.

Her second novel, Latin Satins (1994), follows the adventures of a singing group living in a group house in Ocean Park. She drafted the novel during a 1993 writing residency at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island, Washington. Her third novel, Faults (1999), centers on the 1994 Northridge earthquake and was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction. She also published the short story "Beyond El Camino Real," which draws on a cross-country road trip with a former girlfriend and reflects on racial segregation encountered in rural America.

De la Peña contributed short fiction to numerous anthologies beginning in 1989, including Finding Courage: Writings by Women, Blood Whispers: L.A. Writers on AIDS, Lavender Mansions, and Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women, among others. She retired from UCLA in June 2013.

De la Peña has stated that her identity as a published lesbian Chicana writer empowers her by bringing together the otherwise fragmented parts of her identity, and she has expressed hope that her works can serve as role models for Mexican Americans navigating their queer identities.

Selected works

Novels Margins, Seal Press, 1992 Latin Satins, Seal Press, 1994 Faults, Alyson Books, 1999

Children's books A is for the Americas, co-written with Cynthia Chin-Lee and Enrique O. Sanchez, Orchard Books, 1999

Selected anthology contributions Finding Courage: Writings by Women, 1989 The Original Coming Out Stories, 1989 Lesbian Bedtime Stories Two, 1990 Blood Whispers: L.A. Writers on AIDS, 1991 Happy Endings: Lesbian Writers Talk about Their Lives and Work, 1993 Lavender Mansions: 40 Contemporary Lesbian and Gay Short Stories, 1994 Another Wilderness: New Outdoor Writing by Women, 1994 Night Bites: Vampire Stories by Women, 1996 At Home on This Earth: Two Centuries of U.S. Women's Nature Writing, 2002 Tortilleras: Hispanic and U.S. Latina Lesbian Expression, 2003