Claribel Alegría

Clara Isabel Alegría Vides
Alegría at the 3rd annual International Poetry Festival in Granada.
Born	(1924-05-12) May 12, 1924 (age 92) Estelí, Nicaragua
Pen name	Claribel Alegría
Occupation	Poet, Novelist
Nationality	Nicaraguan

Clara Isabel Alegría Vides (born May 12, 1924) is a Nicaraguan poet, essayist, novelist, and journalist who is a major voice in the literature of contemporary Central America. She writes under the pseudonym Claribel Alegría. She was awarded the 2006 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Alegría was born in Estelí, Nicaragua. When she was nine months old, her father was sent into exile for protesting human rights violations occurring during the US Occupation of Nicaragua ; as a result, she grew up in the Santa Ana area in western El Salvador and considers herself to be Salvadorean . Although she was too young to read or write, she began composing poetry at the age of six and dictated them to her mother, who would write them down. Alegría consistently cites Rainer Maria Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" as the impetus for becoming a poet. At the age of seventeen, she published her first poems in Repertorio Americano, a Central American cultural supplement. Soon after, Mexican educator José Vasconcelos arranged for Alegría to attend finishing school in Hammond, Louisiana. In 1943, she moved to the United States and in 1948 received a B.A. in Philosophy and Letters from George Washington University. Alegría was committed to nonviolent resistance. She had a close association with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle and took control of the Nicaraguan government in 1979. Alegría returned to Nicaragua in 1985 to aid in the reconstruction of Nicaragua.