Carmen Agra Deedy

Carmen Agra Deedy – Life, Career, and Notable Quotes

Carmen Agra Deedy is a Cuban-born American children’s author, storyteller, and radio contributor. Her works—such as 14 Cows for America, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, The Library Dragon, and The Yellow Star—are beloved for blending humor, heart, and moral insight.

Introduction

Carmen Agra Deedy is a distinguished author of children’s literature and a gifted storyteller. Her stories often draw upon her Cuban heritage, experiences as an immigrant, and her deep love of libraries, stories, and community. Through her books, essays, public speaking, and storytelling performances, she connects with audiences young and old—inviting them into tales that celebrate courage, compassion, identity, and the power of narrative.

Early Life and Background

Carmen Agra Deedy was born in Havana, Cuba, around 1960 (though some sources list 1960) . During the early 1960s, following the Cuban Revolution, her family emigrated to the United States. Sources differ on the precise year of migration: some say 1963, others 1964. She and her family settled in Decatur, Georgia, where she grew up and later made her home.

Growing up in Decatur, Deedy lived at the intersection of multiple cultural identities: Cuban roots, Southern U.S. surroundings, immigrant experience. Her bilingual and bicultural perspectives often inform her writing and public voice.

Education & Formative Years

While explicit information about her formal higher education is less publicly emphasized, what is clear is that Deedy developed early an engagement with storytelling, libraries, and community. Her formative years involved growing up in Georgia, absorbing stories from her family, and gradually finding her voice as a writer and storyteller.

Her involvement with radio (National Public Radio) and storytelling platforms further honed her narrative voice and public presence.

Career and Major Works

Early Publishing & Storytelling

Deedy’s writing career spans over two decades. Her early published works include:

• Agatha’s Feather Bed: Not Just Another Wild Goose Story (1993)

• TreeMan (1993)

• The Library Dragon (1994) — one of her more enduring works.

• The Last Dance (1995)

• The Secret of Old Zeb (1997)

• The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark (2000) — a work that presents a legend about the Danish king’s solidarity during the Nazi occupation.

• Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale (2007) — a retelling of a Cuban folktale, in English and Spanish editions.

• 14 Cows for America (2009) — based on a real story of a gift from Maasai people to Americans after 9/11; it became a New York Times Bestseller.

• The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale (2011) — a whimsical work co-authored (or in collaboration) that plays with Dickensian themes.

• More recent works listed on her website include: Wombat Said Come In (2022), Carina Felina (2023), and The Peanut Man (due March 2025)

Deedy is also an active storyteller, performing in the United States and Canada in venues including the Kennedy Center, Folger Shakespeare Library, National Storytelling Festival, and numerous regional storytelling festivals.

She has contributed to National Public Radio (NPR), particularly All Things Considered, and collected some personal essays in audio form in Growing Up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia.

Deedy also serves as a lecturer and speaker (Library of Congress, TED / TEDx, Kennedy Center, Columbia University) and has advocated extensively for libraries and literacy.

She hosts the children’s show Love That Book!, which has won Emmy awards.

She has also served on advisory boards such as the Smithsonian Libraries & Archives, and on library advocacy bodies.

Themes, Style & Approach

• Cultural identity & bicultural perspective
  Deedy often weaves her Cuban heritage and immigrant experience into stories. Her narratives reflect the tension and richness of living between cultures.

• Moral insight through narrative
  Many of her books carry themes of empathy, courage, dignity, and social justice. For instance, The Yellow Star deals with solidarity during persecution; 14 Cows for America explores generosity, healing, and cross-cultural compassion.

• Playful yet thoughtful voice
  She often employs humor, folktale structure, lyrical language, and narrative warmth to deliver direct emotional connection without didacticism.

• Storytelling as community and connection
  Beyond writing, she sees storytelling as a live, relational act. Her performances emphasize voice, timing, presence, and intimacy.

• Library advocacy
  She champions libraries as sanctuaries, community centers, and vital cultural institutions.

Recognition & Awards

Carmen Agra Deedy’s work has been widely honored:

• Martina the Beautiful Cockroach earned the Pura Belpré Honor (for an author or illustrator of Latino heritage whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience)

• The Yellow Star received honors such as the Christopher Award, Bologna Ragazzi Award, and Jane Adams Peace Association Honor

• Her audio essay collection Growing Up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia was named a Publishers Weekly Best Audiobook – Adult Storytelling (1995) and received a Parents’ Choice Gold Award (1996)

• Her books are often selected for reading lists and “must-read” lists; for instance, 14 Cows for America was included in the Georgia Center for the Book’s “25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read.”

• She has been an invited speaker at prestigious venues (Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, TED) and contributes to national cultural conversations.

Quotes & Memorable Lines

Here are several notable quotations by Carmen Agra Deedy, revealing her views on storytelling, life, writing, and culture:

“Because there is no nation so powerful it cannot be wounded, nor a people so small they cannot offer mighty comfort.”
“I have been ineluctably drawn to libraries ever since I entered that sanctum sanctorum. It was a place of quietude. In a world where things go beep and ding and ring … when I enter a library, I feel that I am still entering a temple.”
“There are constant cycles in history. There is loss, but it is always followed by regeneration. The tales of our elders who remember such cycles are very important to us now.”
“Listening to others does not mean you should sound like them; find your own voice by telling stories as authentically as possible.”
“I began telling stories as a volunteer in my daughters' school. … I learned a great deal by just being quiet and listening.”
“I find that it takes a lot of years of living, and many more of reckoning, to come up with one worthwhile paragraph. And when a deadline looms, prayer doesn’t hurt, either.”

These lines reflect her reverence for storytelling, humility in craft, and belief in emotional and moral resonance.

Lessons and Legacy

1. Storytelling bridges divides
   Deedy’s work is a testament to how stories—especially those rooted in cultural identity and empathy—can connect across backgrounds, generations, and experiences.

2. Cultural memory matters
   She emphasizes preserving elders’ stories, cycles of history, and the voices of communities that might otherwise be forgotten.

3. Libraries are sacred spaces
   For her, libraries are not merely repositories of books, but sanctuaries of silence, imagination, community, and refuge.

4. Voice is earned over time
   Her quote about years of living before writing a “worthwhile paragraph” suggests that craft, self-understanding, and patience are integral to writing of depth.

5. Public engagement enriches authorship
   Deedy’s roles as storyteller, lecturer, radio contributor, and advocate illustrate how authors can extend influence beyond books into cultural and civic life.

Conclusion

Carmen Agra Deedy is more than a children’s author; she is a cultural bridge, a teller of truths, and a living advocate for the sanctity of stories, libraries, and human connection. Her journey from Cuba to Decatur, from immigrant child to celebrated storyteller, informs the authenticity, compassion, and resonance of her work.