Reyna Grande is the author of the novels, Across a Hundred Mountains (2007), for which she received an American Book Award, and Dancing with Butterflies (2009), an International Latino Book Award winner. Her most recent book, The Distance Between Us (2013), is a memoir about her life before and after illegally immigrating from Mexico to the United States. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “the Angela’s Ashes of the modern Mexican immigrant experience,” it was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in addition to being a published author, Reyna is an active promoter of Latino literature and is a sought-after speaker at high schools, colleges, and universities across the nation. Currently, she serves as a UCLA Extension Writers’ Program instructor.