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	This set will be extremely helpful to high-school and college students who need to write papers about or choose works to read from Latin American authors... Most public and college libraries will need this set, as will high schools that teach multicultural literature and where literary research is required.

Booklist To read the entire review, click here.

Notable Latino Writers
Biographical essays on 120 authors who are US residents of Latin descent or Latin American authors.

Notable Latino Writers compiles 122 essays on great novelists, poets, playwrights, and short-story writers of the Western Hemisphere who are considered "Latino" in the broad sense of the term. Literature covered includes works originally written in English and those Spanish and Portuguese works that have been translated into English. For each there is a comprehensive overview of the author's biography and literary career as well as ready-reference listings of their major works in all genres.

The description "Latino" is often limited to those born in the United States of Spanish-speaking parents, or who have migrated to the United States from a Spanish-language country. Salem uses the term "Latino" in its larger sense, to refer to authors living in the Americas who speak - or descend from those who spoke - either Spanish or Portuguese, as well as those of Latin American descent living in the United States, who often may speak only English. The term is deliberately inclusive, allowing coverage here of many Latin American authors (such as the Brazilian Jorge Amado, the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, or the Peruvian/Chilean Isabel Allende) whose works have been routinely translated into English and studied as part of the Latino heritage. The term also, of course, includes U.S.-born writers of Latino descent - Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Cuban American, and Dominican American, from Julia Alvarez to Richard Rodriguez to Gary Soto - whose experiences growing up in this country, with all their variety, have been collectively termed "Latino." Used this way, the term "Latino" generally does not refer to Spaniards (such as Miguel de Cervantes) exclusively identified with Spain.

Each essay includes a brief quotation from the author and in most cases by a photograph or portrait; the author's nationality or ethnicity and major genre (e.g., "Mexican American novelist") are identified. A full listing of birth and death dates and places follows, plus chronological listings of the author's works by genre: Foreign-language (original) title first if appropriate, then date of publication, then English title-in-publication and its date. The text of each essay introduces the author with a pronunciation for his or her name, a brief biographical sketch, and a synopsis of the literary career. At the end of every essay is an up-to-date annotated bibliography, "Learn More," which suggests secondary sources for further study.

A special feature of the set is a boxed sidebar that accompanies each essay, headed "What to Read." This synopsis of one of the author's most famous works and is both a guide to students looking for a place to start and an advisory for the interested general reader.

Magill's Choice Sources
In keeping with the spirit of Magill's Choice works, Notable Latino Writers is compiled from a number of Salem Press resources: Most of the essays are reprinted from the Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition; some have been reprinted as abridged versions of essays from Salem's Critical Survey series; a few more originally appeared in our Identities and Issues in Literature.