Cristina Rivera Garza (born October 1, 1964)[1] is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Mexican author and professor best known for her fictional work, with various novels, including Nadie me verá llorar (No One Will See Me Cry), receiving some of Mexico’s highest literary awards as well as international honors.

She is the recipient of the 2020 MacArthur Fellowship,[2] and her recent accolades include the Juan Vicente Melo National Short Story Award, the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize (Garza is the only author to win this award twice), and the Anna Seghers Prize.

[8][14] In 2001, CECUT/Centro Cultural de Tijuana invited her to teach a class in creative writing, which she says changed her "personal dynamics, a lot of my relationships with Mexico" being in a Spanish dominant academic environment again.

[6] Garza has also taught at UNAM, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM), DePauw University,[1] and has done research into popular conceptions of insanity and the history of psychiatry in Mexico.

Anderson Distinguished Professor in Hispanic Studies and the director and founder of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston.

[15] Rivera Garza is one of the most prolific Mexican writers in her generation,[11] receiving grants from CME (1984), FONCA (1994, 1999), and the Centro de Estudios México-Estados Unidos (1998).

[17] As a writer, she aims to darken things and make readers suspicious, believing that "there is too much light and clarity in the world" as well as too much communication and messaging.

Instead, she believes she is producing a kind of reality, agreeing with poet Caridad Ascensio that books provide travel through a state of mind.

Rivera Garza believes that literature is one of the few ways people can explore the limits of human experience through language, stating that the books that have impacted her the most are those that made her think.

[11] Her work has often focused on those marginalized, such as insane people and prostitutes and challenges the idea that concepts such as sex, nation or narrative identity are stable.

[9] Her work, especially Nadie me verá llorar, has been praised by critics such as Carlos Fuentes, who stated that it has not received the attention it deserves.

[9][18] Her work has earned her various forms of recognition, starting in the 1980s with the Punto de Partida Poetry Competition in 1984 for Apuntes and the San Luis Potosí National Short Story Prize in 1987 for La guerra no importa.

[12] Her most recognized work is Nadie me verá llorar which received the 2000 IMPAC/CONARTE/ITESM National Award for Best Published Novel in Mexico, the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize in 2001, along with 1997 José Rubén Romero National Literary Award for Best Novel[8][9] and was a finalist at the IMPAC Dublin International Prize.