Born in Puerto Rico, Judith Ortiz Cofer (1952– ) emigrated to the United States with her family as a child. Her family spoke Spanish, so it was "a challenge, not only to learn English, but to master it enough to teach it and—the ultimate goal—to write poetry in it." Ortiz Cofer says that her family is one of the main topics of her poetry: "The place of birth itself becomes a metaphor for the things we all must leave behind; the assimilation of a new culture is the coming into maturity by accepting the terms necessary for survival. My poetry is a study of this process of change, assimilation, and transformation."

Besides poetry, Ortiz Cofer explored her Puerto Rican heritage in a novel, The Line of the Sun (1989). The protagonist, Marisol, learns to balance the American and Puerto Rican aspects of her identity. Living in Paterson, New Jersey, she learns about her Puerto Rican heritage mainly through the stories told by her family. Ortiz Cofer admits that the obsession called "the island" has always been with her. She recreates the scenes of her youth and transforms them with her imagination in her fiction. An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio (1996) includes twelve stories about Puerto Rican teenagers living in a New Jersey neighborhood. The Latin Deli (1993) and The Year of Our Revolution (1998) contain both short stories and poems. Her story "Nada" won an O. Henry Short Story Prize. Currently Ortiz Cofer teaches literature and writing at the University of Georgia in Athens.