Viola Canales

Viola Canales (b. April 21, 1957)) is an American writer originally from McAllen, Texas. She has published a short story collection, Orange Candy Slices and Other Secret Tales (2001), and a novel, The Tequila Worm (2005), for which she won the Pura Belpré Award in 2006.

Canales attended St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin, Harvard College, and Harvard Law School. She has been a captain in the US Army, a litigator, and an official in the Clinton Administration.