User:Starryberry/Sheila Ortiz Taylor/Purplelily21 Peer Review

General info
(provide username) Starryberry
 * Whose work are you reviewing?


 * Link to draft you're reviewing User:Starryberry/Sheila Ortiz Taylor:
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists):

Evaluate the drafted changes
(Compose a detailed peer review here, considering each of the key aspects listed above if it is relevant. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what feedback looks like.)

Second Review

Good job including more information in your article. There are still a few spots where I feel you could add more information or make the sentence clearer, as I've marked. I would also recommend reading through the entry as a whole - at times the writing could be a little more formal/academic or could be stronger. I've marked a few places where the wording seems a little awkward but in general I would recommend going back through to see what could be improved. After you make these improvements, you should be ready to publish the article to the main space.

Shiela Ortiz Taylor (born September 25, 1939) - is a lesbian Chicana writer, poet, novelist, literacy critic, and former professor from, who was born in Los Angeles, California. She is of Mexican-American descent and has produced multiple novels such as Faultline (1982), Spring Forward/Fall Back (1985), Southbound (1990), and Coachella (1998). Shiela Ortiz Taylor started writing poetry in middle school inspired by her family’s love for art and expressionism.

Personal Life[edit]
(Try to begin the personal life section with concrete details about her life - when and where she was born, info about her family. Maybe mention that her family embraced non-traditional gender roles. Was she raised by both her parents?) Sheila Ortiz-Taylor got her inspiration for writing and poetry while she was in middle school due to her family’s love for art as a form of expression of oneself. Ortiz Taylor’s writings were inspired by her personal life and she often used her writing as a way to express her own feelings and emotions. Ortiz Taylor and her sister, Sandra Ortiz Taylor were supported by their mother in their individual interests even when they rejected traditional feminine interests like makeup, dresses, dolls, etc. Ortiz Taylor's grandmother helped Ortiz Taylor envision literature and cooking as intertwined. Her aunts, Julia and Thelma, engaged in gender roles and activities typically resserved for men which inspired her outlook on gender roles and career choices. Ortiz Taylor's unconvential family dynamic inspired her to pursue arts and literature as a way to express her experiences and worldview as growing up in a Mexican-American household. In addition, both Shiela Ortiz Taylor and Sandra Ortiz Taylor worked on Imaginary Parents (1996) as a collaorative effort to create a family memoir of their experiences growing up.

After graduating from high school, Ortiz Taylor enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an English major with a Spanish minor. (Mention here that she did not finish at this point)

In 1958, she married and moved to Iowa where she worked as a secretary and as a nurse aide for handicapped children. Soon after, she divorced her husband but was unable to return to her home state due to demands and restrictions regarding her custody battle with her ex-husband. Her ex-husband believed she was unfit to raise their children because of her sexuality and Ortiz Taylor had to see a psychologist.

In 1960 she returned to Los Angeles and reenrolled at UCLA where she won the Mabel Wilson Richards Fellowship. In 1961 Ortiz-Taylor transferred to California State University, Northridge, and graduated with honors and a Bachelor's degree in English In 1963 and was named Outstanding Student of Language and Literature. After spending her summer in Europe, Ortiz Taylor returned to UCLA where she received her Master's in 1964 and Ph.D in 1972.

When Ortiz Taylor began writing Faultline (1982), she was initially inspired by her own personal life, which involved her ex-husband and the fact that their children would grow up in a lesbian household. Her work is critically acclaimed and is used as a critic of Chicano/literacy (This part of the sentence is confusing. Not sure what you're trying to say) regarding gender and sexuality. Most of her work was as a novelist but she also worked as an English professor. Faultline was also considered the first Chicana lesbian novel published. This trend of relating her experiences to her books was also present in her novel, Southbound where she expands on her ethnic identity and Chicano traditions.

Faultline[edit]
Sheila Ortiz Taylor’s most well-known novel, Faultline, was published in 1982 by the Naiad Press – a lesbian publisher (Would be helpful to include here a brief description of what the novel is about before you expand later). At the time of publication, Faultline was not an immediate success. As it gained popularity within the global arena, however, the novel was then translated to German, Italian, and even had a British edition (Can you elaborate more on its reception/popularity after it became more well known?).

Ortiz Taylor started writing Faultline as a means of catharsis regarding her ex-husband’s disapproval of the raising of their children while in a same-sex relationship (Could be worded stronger - maybe started writing Faultline as a catharsis from her ex-husband's disapproval of her same-sex relationship while she raised their children). Similar to Ortiz Taylor’s own struggles, Faultline focuses on the protagonist Arden Benbow, a proclaimed lesbian, and the obstacles she faced during a custody battle with her ex-husband Malthus. The novel initially takes place within a courtroom, where Arden speaks to the judge on her own behalf, claiming she did nothing wrong as a parent, while Malthus condemns her actions of wanting to be a lesbian mother to their shared children. Further in the novel as Arden’s testimony progresses, she rejects the court’s position that there is only a straight line separating accepted and rejected norms. She challenges this viewpoint, which also reflects a patriarchal society's belief, with her own evidence that skews this symbolic straight line of norms into one that is more irregular, like that of an earthly faultline, which directly refers to the title. Faultline concludes with Arden winning the custody battle, which redefines what a family can look like in a heteronormative society.

Other Written Works[edit]
In 1990, Ortiz Taylor released Southbound, a sequel to Faultline. Southbound continues with Arden, the main character from Faultine, studying at a Creative Writing Program at UCLA and reminiscing about her history in Los Angeles because she realizes that she might have to find a career outside of California. Her road trip includes places such as Texas, Mexico, and ultimately culminating culminates in Florida. The third book, OutRageous (2006), centers around Arden in Florida where she faces opposition from the college administration due to her lesbianism but gains support from her community.

Sheila Ortiz Taylor also worked in collaboration with her sister, Sandra Ortiz Taylor, to write Imaginary Parents: A Family Autobiography in 1996. The two sisters recount their childhood such as family members’ suicide, their relationship with their mother Juanita, and their parents' relationship. Sandra Ortiz Taylor contributes to this book through illustrations that give insight into her different perspective of their childhood.

Ortiz Taylor also wrote poetry and articles. One of her articles, “Women in a Double Bind: Hazards of an Argumentative Edge” discussed the difficulties that female students faced in college.

Her other works include Spring Foward/Fall Back (1985), which is about a lesbian family as well, Borderlands (1987), Coachella, and Slow Dancing at Miss Polly’s.

LGBTQ+ Identity[edit]
Sheila Ortiz Taylor uses her sexual identity as a primary component for her literary works, with her ethnic background as a Mexican-American coming soon after.

Sheila Ortiz Taylor identifies as a lesbian, using her written works, specifically Faultline, as a vessel for her personal struggles being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. The novel is reflective of her personal life, using the main character of the novel “Arden”' as a representation of herself. Arden, much like Ortiz Taylor, is a Chicana, lesbian mother challenging gender norms and the opposition she faced from those around her, specifically her ex-husband. Not only does her sexual identity challenge gender norms in the United States, but it was also a struggle to grapple with this side of herself in the face of her Chicana identity. The Chicano values emphasize the importance of a unified familia, and the need for la familia to be led by a man and a woman. In addition to the struggle against gender norms, Ortiz Taylor uses Faultline to communicate her belief that individuals have the freedom to create an identity, rather than inherit it from previous generations. This thought is reflective of her inner-battles with a traditional Chicano identity, and who she actually desired to be. Beyond the vague idea of “gender norms,” Ortiz Taylor more specifically tackles ideas of the patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality in her novel as well. The patriarchy in Arden’s personal life is dismantled through her lesbian identity, through her lack of desire or dependency on a male. Subsequently, the main character Arden’s loving relationship with a woman at the end of the book defies the traditional, heterosexual social constructs that she had been expected to fall into all her life.

Chicana Identity[edit]
Ortiz Taylor is of Mexican-American descent. Her grandmother was a Mexican-American Catholic woman from Los Angeles and Ortiz Taylor grew up in a household of “fourth–and fifth–generation, middle-class Mexican-Americans.” In her books, Ortiz Taylor explores her Chicana identity through the details of her characters and her use of metaphors. Through Arden in Faultline and Southbound, Ortriz Taylor brings up Arden’s Indigenous background, enjoying Mexican traditional and Tex-Mex food, remembering her family speaks Spanish, and the addition of Spanish words in her vocabulary. Ortiz Taylor also relates Arden to Mexico as her homeland and as Arden finds herself needing to look to the past. Critics of Ortiz Taylor view her references to her Chicana heritage as “superficial” because Arden “makes fun of her ‘Indian’ nose.” Critics also mention that her Chicanidad does not play a central role as Ortiz Taylor focuses on lesbianism in her writing. In Imaginary Parents, the Ortiz Sisters reveal more about their Mexican Catholic heritage, eating and learning how to cook traditional foods. Reviewers of her trilogy starring Arden note that from the beginning of Faultline to OutRageous, Ortiz Taylor progressively writes more about her heritage.

Career[edit]
After attaining her Ph.D. in 1972, Ortiz Taylor was hired as an English Professor at Florida State University, where she received various academic grants and awards. Some of her accolades included the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Grant, the Teaching Incentive Program Award, the William R. Jones Most Valuable Mentor Award, the University Teaching Award, and the Professional Excellence Program Award. During her tenure as a professor, Ortiz Taylor also served as the Director of Women’s Studies.

Overall this is a strong start to your article. There are some places where I feel you could add more information, however, especially in regard to her personal life, as I've noted in the text below. There are also places where the grammar, clarity, tone, etc. of the writing could be improved so be sure to proofread and edit further. I have made comments in the text in parenthesis and in bold. Let me know if you have any questions! - Sara

Shiela Ortiz Taylor (born September 25, 1939) - is a lesbian Chicana writer, poet, novelist, literacy critic, and retired former professor from Florida State University, who was born in Los Angeles, California. She is of Mexican-American descent and has produced multiple novels such as Faultline (1982), Spring Forward/Fall Back (1985), Southbound (1990), and Coachella (1998). Shiela Ortiz Taylor started writing poetry in middle school inspired by her family’s love for art and expressionism. Ortiz Taylor’s writings were inspired by her personal life and she often used her writing as a way to express her own feelings and emotions. Her work is critically acclaimed and is used as a critic of Chicano/literacy regarding gender and sexuality. Most of her work was as a novelist but she also worked as an English professor. (I don't think these last few sentences are necessary in the lead section, which should be a short section discussing basic infromation about the person. Maybe move them to the next section?)

Early Life[edit]
Sheila Ortiz-Taylor got her inspiration for writing and poetry while she was in middle school due to her family’s love for art and expression (Try to be more specific). After graduating from high school, Ortiz Taylor enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an English major with a Spanish Minor. (Can you speak more about her earlier life? Such as her childhood, family, etc? Also maybe change the title to personal life since you're speaking about later periods as well)

In 1958, she married and moved to Iowa where worked as a secretary and as a nurse aide for handicapped children.

In 1960 she returned to Los Angeles and reenrolled at UCLA where and she won the Mabel Wilson Richards Fellowship. In 1961 Ortiz-Taylor transferred to California State University, Northridge, and graduated with honors and a degree bachelors (Move bachelors before degree. Also when did she graduate?) in English. In 1963 she was named Outstanding Student of Language and Literature during her time away in Europe. Ortiz Taylor returned to UCLA where she received her Masters in 1964 and Ph.D in 1972.

When Ortiz Taylor began writing Faultline (1982), she was initially inspired by her own personal life, which involved her ex-husband and the fact that their children would grow up in a lesbian household (Mention earlier about her divorce and such. In general I think you could expand on what happened in her personal life). Faultline was also considered the first Chicana lesbian literacy (? Novel or work of literature maybe?) published. This trend of relating her experiences to her books was also present in her novel, Southbound where she expands on her ethnic identity and Chicano traditions.

Faultline[edit]
Sheila Ortiz Taylor’s most well-known novel, Faultline, was published in 1982 by the Naiad Press – a lesbian publisher. At the time of publication, Faultline was not an immediate success. As it gained popularity within the global arena, however, the novel was soon translated to German & Italian and published as a British edition.

Ortiz Taylor started writing Faultline as a means of catharsis regarding her ex-husband’s disapproval of the raising of their children while in a same-sex relationship. Similar to Ortiz Taylor’s own struggles, Faultline focuses on the protagonist Arden Benbow, a proclaimed lesbian, and the obstacles she faced while involved in during a custody battle with her ex-husband Malthus. The novel initially takes place within a courtroom, where Arden speaks to the judge on her own behalf, claiming she did nothing wrong as a parent, while Malthus condemns her actions of wanting to be a lesbian mother to their shared children. Further in the novel as Arden’s testimony progresses, she rejects the court’s position that there is only a straight line separating accepted and rejected norms. She challenges this viewpoint, which also reflects a patriarchal society's belief, with her own evidence that skews this symbolic straight line of norms into one that is more irregular, like that of an earthly faultline, which directly refers to the title. Faultline concludes with Arden winning the custody battle, which redefines what a family can look like in a heteronormative society.

Other Written Works[edit]
In 1990, Ortiz Taylor released Southbound, a sequel to Faultline (Be sure to italicize book titles). Southbound continues with Arden, the main character from Faultine, studying at a Creative Writing Program at UCLA and reminiscing about her history in Los Angeles because she realizes that she might have to find a career outside of California. Her road trip includes places such as Texas, Mexico, and ultimately culminating in Florida. The third book, OutRageous (2006), centers around Arden in Florida where she faces opposition from the college administration due to her lesbianism but gains support from her community.

Sheila Ortiz Taylor also worked in collaboration with her sister, Sandra Ortiz Taylor, to write Imaginary Parents: A Family Autobiography in 1996. The two sisters recount their childhood such as family members’ suicide, their relationship with their mother Juanita, and their parents' relationship. Sandra Ortiz Taylor contributes to this book through illustrations that give insight into her different perspective of their childhood.

Ortiz Taylor also wrote poetry and articles. One of her articles, “Women in a Double Bind: Hazards of an Argumentative Edge” discussed the difficulties that female students were facing faced in college.

Her other works include Spring Foward/Fall Back (1985), which is about a lesbian family as well, Borderlands (1987), Coachella, and Slow Dancing at Miss Polly’s.

LGBTQ+ Identity[edit]
Sheila Ortiz Taylor uses her sexual identity as a primary component for her literary works, with her ethnic background as a Mexican-American coming soon after.

Sheila Ortiz Taylor identifies as a lesbian, using her written works, specifically Faultline, as a vessel for her personal struggles being a part of the LGBTQ+ community. The novel is reflective of her personal life, using the main character of the novel “Arden”' as a representation of herself. Arden, much like Ortiz Taylor, is a Chicana, lesbian mother challenging gender norms and the opposition she faced from those around her, specifically her ex-husband. Not only does her sexual identity challenge gender norms in the United States, but it was also a struggle to grapple with this side of herself in the face of her Chicana identity. The Chicano values emphasize the importance of a unified familia, and the need for la familia to be led by a man and a woman. In addition to the struggle against gender norms, Ortiz Taylor uses Faultline to communicate her belief that individuals have the freedom to create an identity, rather than inherit it from previous generations. This thought is reflective of her inner-battles with a traditional Chicano identity, and who she actually desired to be. Beyond the vague idea of “gender norms,” Ortiz Taylor more specifically tackles ideas of the patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality in her novel as well. The patriarchy in Arden’s personal life is dismantled through her lesbian identity, through her lack of desire or dependency on a male. Subsequently, the main character Arden’s loving relationship with a woman at the end of the book defies the traditional, heterosexual social constructs that she had been expected to fall into all her life.

Chicana Identity[edit]
Ortiz Taylor is of Mexican-American descent. Her grandmother was a Mexican-American Catholic woman from Los Angeles and Ortiz Taylor grew up in a household of “fourth–and fifth–generation, middle-class Mexican-Americans”. In her books, Ortiz Taylor explores her Chicana identity Southbound through the details of her characters and her use of metaphors. Through Arden in Faultline and Southbound, Ortriz Taylor brings up Arden’s Indigenous background, enjoying Mexican traditional and Tex-Mex food, remembering her family speaks Spanish, and the addition of Spanish words in her vocabulary. Ortiz Taylor also relates Arden to Mexico as her homeland and as Arden finds herself needing to look to the past. Critics of Ortiz Taylor view her references to her Chicana heritage as “superficial” because Arden “makes fun of her ‘Indian’ nose”. Critics also mention that her Chicanidad does not play a central role as Ortiz Taylor focuses on lesbianism in her writing. In Imaginary Parents, the Ortiz Sisters reveal more about their Mexican Catholic heritage, eating and learning how to cook traditional foods. Reviewers of her trilogy starring Arden note that from the beginning of Faultine to OutRageous, Ortiz Taylor progressively writes (more?) about her heritage.

Career[edit]
After attaining her Ph.D. in 1972, Ortiz Taylor was hired as an English Professor at Florida State University, where she received various academic awards, honors, and grants (Maybe mention some specific ones). During her tenure as a professor, Ortiz Taylor also served as Director of Women’s studies.