Oscar Hijuelos

His is the author of eight novels: Our House in the Last World (1983), The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien (1992), Mr. Ives' Christmas (1995), Empress of the Splendid Season (1999), A Simple Habana Melody (2002), Dark Dude (2008) and most recently Beautiful Maria of My Soul (2010). He has published in The New York Times and The New Yorker. In 1990, he became the first Hispanic-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love which was the basis for the movie The Mambo Kings (1992). Recent honors include The Raul Julia award from the Repertorio Espanol in New york City (1992), The 1st Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano Latino Literature (2002), and a National Hispanic Heritage Award for contributions to literature (2001). A memoir, entitled Thoughts Without Cigarettes came out in the spring of 2011.