Rosario Ferré was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico into one of Puerto Rico's wealthiest families. Her parents were Lorenza Ramírez de Arellano and the late Luis A. Ferré, the former governor of Puerto Rico. She received her primary education in Ponce, Puerto Rico. At age 13 she moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts and attended Dana Hall School.
Ferré began writing professionally at age 14, publishing articles in Puerto Rico's El Nuevo Día newspaper. In her youth, Ferré was an independence advocate, despite the fact that her father was pro-statehood. Later in life, she also became an advocate of statehood. Upon graduating from high school she went to the United States and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and French from Manhattanville College. She is a member of Mu Alpha Phi sorority.
Ferré returned to Puerto Rico where in the 1970s she enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico to work on her Master's degree. During her tenure as a student, Ferré began her writing career as the founder, editor and publisher of the journal Zona de Carga y Descarga along with her cousin Olga Nolla. The journal was devoted to publishing new writers and to promoting the ideas of the independence movement. Among the novelists and short story writers of Puerto Rico, Ana Lydia Vega and Giannina Braschi share Rosario Ferré's commitment to satire. Ferré also has written and published poems and a biography of her father. Ferré then obtained her PhD from the University of Maryland. Her doctoral thesis was titled: "La filiación romántica de los cuentos de Julio Cortázar" (The romantic link between the stories of Julio Cortázar).
Dr. Rosario Ferré is currently a professor at the University of Puerto Rico and was a contributing editor for The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico's former English language newspaper. Ferré has also been a visiting professor at Rutgers University and Johns Hopkins University. Rosario's aunt was the late Sor Isolina Ferré.
Personal
Upon finishing school, Ferré married a businessman named Benigno Trigo González and had three children, Rosario Lorenza, Benigno and Luis Alfredo. They divorced ten years later. While she studied in the Department for Hispanic Studies of the University of Puerto Rico, she met her second husband, José Aguilar Mora, a Mexican literature professor and writer. They divorced after a few years. While she studied at the University of Maryland and lived in Washington, D.C. she met her third husband, Agustín Costa Quintano, a Puerto Rican architect. They later moved to Puerto Rico, where they currently reside.
Literary career
In 1977, Ferré published a collection of her literary essays titled Sitio a Eros, which promoted political and social themes. Upon earning her masters degree, Rosario enrolled in University of Maryland where she graduated with a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature.
Ferré's books include, among others, The Youngest Doll, The Battle of Virgins, The House on the Lagoon, Sweet Diamond Dust, Flight of the Swan and Eccentric Neighborhoods.
Ferré won the first prize in a short story contest of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño in 1974.In 1992, she was the recipient of the "Liberatur Prix" award from the Frankfurt Book Fair. In 1997, she was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Brown University. Ferré was a Guggenheim fellowship recipient in 2004.
La casa de la laguna, 1995; Spanish version: The House on the Lagoon, 1997
La Batalla de Las Vírgenes, 1994
The Youngest Doll, 1991 (an English version of Papeles de Pandora)
Sonatinas. Cuentos de niños., 1991
Sweet Diamond Dust and Other Stories, 1985; English version: Maldito Amor,1989
El Medio Pollito, 1981
Papeles de Pandora, 1976
Essays
Las Puertas del Placer, 2005
A la sombra de tu nombre (The Shadow of Your Name) Published by Alfaguara; 2001
“Destiny, Language, and Translation; or, Ophelia Adrift in the C & O Canal.” In The Youngest Doll. By Ferré. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1991. 153-65.
El Coloquio de las Perras Published by Editorial Cultural, 1991
Cortázar: El Romántico en su Observatorio. Puerto Rico; Editorial Cultura, 1991
El Arbol y sus Sombras (The tree and its shadows): Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1990
La autenticidad de la mujer en el arte
El Acomodador: una lectura fantastica de Felisberto Hernandez (The Accommodator: a fantastic lecture by Felisberto Hernandez), 1986
Sitio a Eros: Quince ensayos literarios, 1986
“La cocina de la escritura.” In Literatures in Transition: The Many Voices of the Caribbean Area. Ed. Rose S. Minc. Gaithersburg: Hispamérica/Las Américas, 1982. 37-51.
Sitio a Eros: Trece ensayos literarios, 1980
Poetry
Fisuras, 2006
Language Duel/Duelo del Lenguaje, 2003
Antología Personal: 1992-1976, 1994
Fabulas de la Garza Desangrada, 1982
Las dos Venecias. Poemas y cuentos, 1992
Biographies
Memorias de Ponce; Biografía de Don Luis A. Ferré. Published by Editorial Norma, 1992
Critical Studies of Ferré's Work
Acosta Cruz, María I. “Historia, ser e identidad femenina en ‘El collar de camándulas’ y ‘Maldito amor’ de Rosario Ferré.” Chasqui 22.2 (1993): 23-31.
Acosta Cruz, María I.“Historia y escritura femenina en Olga Nolla, Magali García Ramis, Rosario Ferré y Ana Lydia Vega.” Revista Iberoamericana 59 (1993): 265-77.
Allatson, Paul. "Rosario Ferré’s Trans-'American' Fantasy, or Subalternizing the Self," in Latino Dreams: Transcultural Traffic and the U.S. National Imaginary. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2002, 59-108.
Apter-Cragnolino, Aída. “De sitios y asedios: la escritura de Rosario Ferré.” Revista Chilena de Literatura 42 (1993): 25-30.
Bustos Fernández, María José. “Subversión de la autoridad narrativa en Maldito amor de Rosario Ferré.” Chasqui 23.1 (1994): 22-29.
Cavallo, Susana. “Llevando la contraria: el contracanto de Rosario Ferré.” Monographic Review-Revista Monográfica 8 (1992): 197-204.
Filer, Malva E. “Polifonía y contrapunto: la crónica histórica en ‘Maldito amor,’ y The House on the Lagoon.” Revista Hispánica Moderna 49.2 (1996): 318-28.*
Garrigós, Cristina. *"Bilingües, biculturales y posmodernas: Rosario Ferré y Giannina Braschi," , Insula. Revista de Ciencias y Letras, 2002 JUL-AGO; LVII (667-668).
Gazarian Gautier. "Rosario Ferré." Interviews with Latin American Writers. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1989. 81-92.
Gould Levine, Linda y Gloria Feiman Waldman. "No más máscaras: Un diálogo entre tres escritoras del Caribe: Belkis Cuza Malé - Cuba, Matilde Daviú - Venezuela, Rosario Ferré - Puerto Rico." Literatures in Transition: The Many Voices of the Caribbean Area: A Symposium. Ed. Rose S. Minc. Gathersburg: Hispamérica, 1982. 189-197.
Heinrich, María Elena. "Entrevista a Rosario Ferré." Prismal/Cabral 7-8 (1982): 98-103.
Hintz, Suzanne S. Rosario Ferré, A Search for Identity. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1995.
Jaffe, Janice A. “Translation and Prostitution: Rosario Ferré’s Maldito Amor and Sweet Diamond Dust.” Latin American Literary Review 23.46 (1995): 66-82.
Mullen, Edward. “Interpreting Puerto Rico’s Cultural Myths: Rosario Ferré and Manuel Ramos Otero.” Americas Review 17 (1989): 88-97.
Pérez Marín, Carmen I. “De la épica a la novela: la recuperación de la voz en Maldito amor de Rosario Ferré.” Letras Femeninas 20.1-2 (1994): 35-43.
Skinner, Lee. “Pandora’s Log: Charting the Evolving Literary Project of Rosario Ferré.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 29 (1995): 461-75.
Vega Carney, Carmen. “El amor como discurso político en Ana Lydia Vega y Rosario Ferré.” Letras Femeninas 22.1-2 (1991): 77-87.
Zapata, Miguel Angel. "Rosario Ferré: La poesía de narrar." Inti 26-27 (1987—1988): 133-140.
