Credit: Courtesy of Aztlan Libre Press

Credit: Courtesy of Aztlan Libre Press

Tejana author, activist and spoken-word artist Amalia Ortiz has been named one of 2020’s American Book Award winners.

On Monday, the Before Columbus Foundation announced the winners of the 41st annual awards, which were created to “provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community.”

Ortiz received the Oral Literature Award for The Canción Cannibal Cabaret & Other Songs, a book of poetry that doubles as the script for a punk musical, which she debuted in a premiere performance at the Guadalupe Theater last summer.

This year’s American Book Award winners will be recognized in an online ceremony on Sunday, October 25.

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Kelly Nelson was a digital content editor for the San Antonio Current.