Dr. Irene Blea is a native New Mexican, a retired Full Professor and Chairperson of Mexican American Studies at California State University-Los Angeles. The Sociologist is an award winning author, scholar, poet and public speaker with areas of specialization in race and gender relations. These are the main topics of her work. However, she also lectures on the Santa Fe Trail for the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC: see their website).
Dr. Blea has written well over thirty articles and seven books: six of them published by Greenwood/Preager, New York. Two of her books are considered “Classics” by her publishers. Blea has reviewed manuscripts for academic publication and is the founder of two writers groups in NM: Sandia Poets and Write: Women of Color. To her, the first few lines of the text are of primary importance, the hook. It determines if a reader continues reading past the first page. Blea stresses cultural and landscape (place) character development: how the character is a cultural being and how it relates or is affected by its environment. She offers that writers must write about what they know from an insider perspective and keep in mind the outsider perspective (how it will be received by someone who does not know the culture and landscape). Those writing historical fiction would do well to develop a historical timeline. Blea’s first novel, Suzanna, does this. It is about a young girl married off to an older man. Suzanna is a trilogy and Irene is about to complete the second in this three-part series. To review her books visit Amazon.com and/or visit Irene Blea on Facebook and Linked.
Contact: Irene Blea
