Judith Ortiz Cofer (1952–2016) was a writer, scholar, and professor, and an alumna of Augusta College. Born Judith Ortiz in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, she spent her childhood moving between the island and the U.S. mainland due to her father’s Navy service. In 1956, her family settled in Paterson, New Jersey, where her experiences—contrasted with summers in Puerto Rico—shaped her interests in female liberation and the intersections of American and Latinx culture. The family relocated to Augusta, Georgia, in 1967, where Cofer graduated from Butler High School before studying English literature at Augusta College, where she met her future husband, John Cofer. She earned her B.A. in English literature from Augusta College in 1974 and an M.A. from Florida Atlantic University. A scholarship from the English-Speaking Union allowed her to study for a summer at Oxford University. After completing her M.A., Cofer taught as an adjunct and lecturer at Broward County Community College, Palm Beach Community College, and the University of Miami. She returned to Georgia in 1984 as an English instructor at the University of Georgia, leaving in 1987 for positions at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education (1987–1989), Macon College (1989–1990), and Mercer University (1990–1992). In 1992, she returned to the University of Georgia as a tenure-track associate professor of creative writing, eventually earning distinction as Regent’s Professor and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing, and shaping the next generation of writers through her teaching and mentorship. Cofer launched her professional career at 28 with the poetry collection Latin Women Pray. Her work soon expanded to nonfiction, fiction, folk tales, translation, and children’s literature, gaining widespread recognition with her Pulitzer Prize–nominated 1989 novel The Line of the Sun. She achieved further acclaim with the 1993 publication of The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women, a collection of essays, poetry, and cultural criticism celebrated for its vivid portrayals of Puerto Rican life in the United States. In 2010, Cofer was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. After a battle with liver cancer, she died at home on December 30, 2016, and is buried in Louisville City Cemetery in Louisville, Georgia.