Stella Pope Duarte began her literary career in 1995 after she had a dream in which her deceased father related to her that her destiny was to become a writer. 

Her first collection of short stories, Fragile Night, (Bilingual Review Press, 1997) won a creative writing fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and was named a candidate for the prestigious, Pen West Fiction Award. 

In 2001 Ms. Duarte was awarded a second creative writing fellowship for her current novel, Let Their Spirits Dance. (HarperCollins, 2002). Harper Collins has described Ms. Duarte as a “major, new literary voice in America.” 

Ms. Duarte's work has won awards and honors nationwide, including a nomination for the Pushcart Prize in Literature.  Let Their Spirits Dance is on the Book Sense List, and was awarded the AZ Highways Fiction Award for 2003, and nominated as a ONEBOOKAz in 2004.  Ms. Duarte won the 2003 Excellence in Latino Arts & Culture Award, presented by Valle del Sol. 

In 2009, Ms. Duarte won an American Book Award for her novel, If I Die in Juárez. In 2009 the novel was awarded, The Independent Publisher Book Award (Gold Medal); 2009 Foreword Book of the Year Award (Gold Medal), and the 2009 International Book Award (Honorable Mention). In 2008, If I Die in Juárez  received the 2008 Arizona Book Award for "Best in Popular Fiction and the 2008 Southwest Book of the Year Award. She earned first place in the 34th Annual Chicano/Literary Prize from the University of California at Irvine for a short story collection, "Women Who Live in Coffee Shops."  In 2004, she received the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award for an excerpt from her current work, If I Die in Juárez, (2008 Spring release), and in 2005 she was honored with the Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award by the American Association of Community Colleges. Governor Janet Napolitano appointed Ms. Duarte as a member of the Arizona Commission on the Arts in 2006.  Ms. Duarte is also on the Artists Roster for the Arizona Commission on the Arts, serving as a resident artist in creative writing for students in elementary through high school.  She is a highly sought-after inspirational speaker for audiences of all ages, on topics related to her work, as well as on issues related to: women's  rights, culture, diversity, leadership, education, literacy, Chicano/Latino history, writing, and storytelling. Ms. Duarte was born and raised in la Sonorita Barrio in South Phoenix.

Job responsibilities have included the following: Instructing in BLE/ESL classes ranging from elementary to university settings; facilitating and managing district-wide educational programs; coordinating a school-wide counseling program as Chair of Counseling at the high school level; serving as clinician in crisis, individual, family, and grief and loss counseling; teaching as adjunct faculty in education ESL, and masters of counseling classes for Arizona State University and the University of Phoenix; teaching  as adjunct faculty in Creative Writing at ASU and community colleges; conducting local and national workshops and seminars related to creative writing, education, women's  rights, literacy, culture, Chicano/Chicana history, and storytelling. Serving as an Artist in Residence for elementary and high school students.

My literary career began by way of a dream of my deceased father in 1995. In the dream, my father related to me that I was destined to write. One year after the dream, I signed my first book contract for Fragile Night, a collection of short stories. In 2002, Let Their Spirits Dance, was released for publication by HarperCollins. My father was right...the salmon-colored staircase he led me to in the dream was immense, reaching into the Heavens.  It has become my way into the writing world, and so much more.