Bestselling Author Reyna Grande
April 25, 2024
I am pleased to announce that the keynote speaker for our 107th Commencement Ceremony will be bestselling author Reyna Grande.
The ceremony will be held at Toyota Arena in Ontario on May 16.
Grande, born in Guerrero, Mexico, wrote the 2012 book “The Distance Between Us” a memoir about her childhood in Mexico, crossing the U.S. border as a 9-year-old undocumented immigrant to join her parents, and finding her voice as a writer.
She enrolled at Pasadena City College in 1994, and then transferred to University of California Santa Cruz where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Literature/Creative Writing. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Antioch University.
Grande received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award and the International Latino Book Award. “The Distance Between Us” was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a winner of the Eureka! Honor Award from the California Reading Association and the 2017 winner of the International Literacy Association Children’s Book Award. Grande also won the 2023 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award and the 2021 California Latino Spirit Award from the California Latino Caucus.
Grande, writes about immigration, family separation, language trauma, the price of the American Dream and her writing journey. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Dallas Morning News, CNN and more. She appeared as a guest on Oprah’s Book Club television special in 2020.
She is a proud member of the Maconado Writers Workshop, an association of socially-engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity and serve community.
Chaffey College is very proud to welcome Reyna Grande as our commencement keynote
speaker.
Sincerely,
Henry D. Shannon, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President
