*Engle, Margarita: - Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree , All the Way to Havana, * Bravo!, * Drum Dream Girl,and Dancing Hands *. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré Medals, Golden Kite Award, Walter Hon...

*Engle, Margarita: - Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree , All the Way to Havana, * Bravo!, * Drum Dream Girl,and Dancing Hands *. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré Medals, Golden Kite Award, Walter Honor, Jane Addams Award, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt Prize, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People's Poet Laureate.

Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother's homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California.