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= Nicholasa Mohr =

Nicholasa Mohr (born November 1, 1938) is a Puerto Rican writer, artist, and children's book author. Central to Mohr's work is the immigrant experience. She was awarded the American Book award in 1981 and the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in 1974. Nicholasa Mohr was born in New York, New York after her parents immigrated from Puerto Rico. At eight years old her father passed away leaving her mother to raise seven kids alone. After graduating from high school in 1953 she went to The Art Students League of New York. This is what piqued her interest in Hispanic Art and she traveled to Mexico City. After a year she returned and attended the New School for Social Research. Then in 1959 she went back to school and attended Brooklyn Museum Art School. In 1973, her first book Nilda was published.

Early Years
Nicholasa was born in New York, New York after her parents immigrated from Puerto Rico but spent most of her life in Brooklyn, New York. At eight years old her Father died leaving her mother to raise seven children on her own. Mohr's mother always encouraged her artistic talent, being the first person to buy Nicholasa a set of paint and pencils. Her mother died before she could graduate High School and her Aunt became the legal guardian to Mohr and her siblings. Lacking the support she had always gotten from her mother, Mohr almost enrolled into trade school to become a seamstress after being told by a counselor that Puerto Rican women didn't need an education. Upon graduating High School she attended the Art's Student's League of New York, located in Manhattan. There became interested in Hispanic Art and traveled to Mexico City. After a year, she returned and continued her education at the New School for Social Research. Then in 1959, she went to Brooklyn Museum of Art School.

Work
Mohr's first book is Nilda, published in 1973. All her books have a similar setting and theme. Set in New York City barrios, Mohr examines the Puerto Rican experience from the perspective of young Puerto Rican women. Her female characters tend to face social problems in a male-dominated Puerto Rican culture where machismo is still widely prevalent. In her essay for the America's Review, she explains that her characters deal with, "the alienation of despised migrants, as well as their psychological, emotional and physical attempts to sustain the family in a traditional Puerto Rican manner." The likeness between her characters and her experiences are evident as her first book Nilda started out as an autobiographical piece that documented her experiences as a Puerto Rican living in Spanish Harlem. So far she has written thirteen books as well as several Children's books.

Career
Nicholasa never considered writing she was an artist, big on incorporating graffiti as well as big letters and symbols in order to tell a story with her paintings. This caught the attention of an agent from a big publishing house, who offered her a contract to write an autobiographical piece on growing up Puerto Rican in New York. Although adamantly against it at first she eventually agreed to write the piece and many revisions later it became her first book, Nilda. She became the first Puerto Rican writer to have her work published by a major publishing house in the United States and has developed the longest career as a creative writer for those publishing houses than any other Hispanic female writer. From 1981 to 1991 she taught at Queens College, City University of New York and from 1995 to 1995 she was Writer-in-residence at Richmond College in London.

Awards

 * Raul Julia Award by the Puerto Rican Family Institute (June 2007)


 * Governor George E. Pataki’s New York State Hispanic Heritage Month Award (2006)


 * Women of El Barrio, Woman of Substance Award (2003)


 * Hispanic Heritage Award for literature (1997)


 * Honoree for Dedication to Puerto Rican Heritage by the Puerto Rican Heritage Committee District 32 in Bushwick, Brooklyn (1998)


 * Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Congress of Puerto Rican Women in Philedalphia (1996)


 * Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the State University of New York, Albany Campus (1989)


 * American Book Award (1981)


 * Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards (1974)


 * The New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year