American poet and writer
Gary Anthony Soto
(born April 12, 1952) is an American poet, novelist, and memoirist.
Life and career
[
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]
Soto was born to Mexican-American parents Manuel (1910?1957) and Angie Soto (1924-). In his youth, he worked in the fields of the
San Joaquin Valley
. Soto's father died in 1957, when he was five years old. As his family had to struggle to find work, he had little time or encouragement in his studies.
[1]
Soto notes that in spite of his early academic record, while at high school he found an interest in poetry through writers such as
Ernest Hemingway
,
John Steinbeck
,
Jules Verne
,
Robert Frost
and
Thornton Wilder
.
[2]
Soto attended
Fresno City College
and
California State University, Fresno
, where he earned his
B.A.
degree in English in 1974,
[2]
studying with poet
Philip Levine
.
[1]
He did graduate work in poetry writing at the
University of California, Irvine
, where he was the first Mexican-American to earn a
M.F.A.
in 1976. He states that he wanted to become a writer in college after discovering the novelist
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
and the contemporary poets
Edward Field
,
W. S. Merwin
,
Charles Simic
,
James Wright
and
Pablo Neruda
, whom he calls "the master of them all."
[2]
Soto taught at
University of California, Berkeley
[1]
and at
University of California, Riverside
,
[3]
where he was a Distinguished Professor.
[4]
Soto was a 'Young People's Ambassador' for the
United Farm Workers of America
, introducing young people to the organization's work and goals.
[1]
Soto became the sponsor for the Pattonville High School Spanish National Honor Society in 2009.
[5]
Soto lives in northern California, dividing his time between
Berkeley
and Fresno, but is no longer teaching.
[6]
Work
[
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]
Soto's poetry focuses on daily experiences,
[1]
often reflecting on his life as a
Mexican American
. Regarding his relationship with the Mexican-American community, Soto commented "as a writer, my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I’m not a cheerleader. I’m one who provides portraits of people in the rush of life."
[2]
Soto writes novels, plays and memoirs, and has edited several literary anthologies. His story "The No-Guitar Blues" was made into a film,
[2]
and he produced another film based on his book "The Pool Party."
[6]
He is a prolific writer of children's books.
[1]
About his work
Joyce Carol Oates
noted "Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life."
[7]
Awards and honors
[
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]
Soto's first collection of poems,
The Elements of San Joaquin
, won the United States Award of the
International Poetry Forum
in 1976 prior to its publication in the
Pitt Poetry Series
in 1977. The
New York Times Book Review
also honored the book by reprinting six of the poems. In 1985, his memoir
Living Up the Street
received the
Before Columbus Foundation
's
American Book Award
.
In 1993, Soto received the
Andrew Carnegie
Medal for Film Excellence from the
Association for Library Service to Children
for his production work on the film
The Pool Party
.
[6]
In 1999, Soto received the
Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature
,
[8]
the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the
National Education Association
, and the
PEN
Center West Book Award for
Petty Crimes
.
[6]
Other honors include the "Discovery"/
The Nation
Prize, the
Bess Hokin Prize
and the
Levinson Award
from
Poetry
.
[6]
He has received The California Library Association's
John and Patricia Beatty Award
(twice), a Recognition of Merit from the
Claremont Graduate School
for
Baseball in April
, the Silver Medal from the
Commonwealth Club of California
, and the
Tomas Rivera
Prize.
The library at Winchell Elementary School in Fresno was named after Soto.
[2]
In 2011, the Old Administration Building at Fresno City College became the permanent home of the Gary Soto Literary Museum.
[9]
In 2014, Soto received the
Phoenix Award
for his 1994 children's book
Jesse
. The award committee stated: "
Jesse
is both a coming-of-age story of one Mexican-American boy with a poetic sensibility and the story of a community and a country at a difficult time?facing poverty and prejudice and war, problems we are still facing today.
Jesse
offers an unembellished slice of life in Vietnam-era
Fresno, California
."
[10]
Bibliography
[
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]
Poetry collections
[
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]
- Downtime
(Gunpowder Press, 2023)
- Meatballs for the People: Proverbs to Chew On
(
Red Hen Press
, 2017)
- Sudden Loss of Dignity
. Stephen F. Austin University Press. 2013.
ISBN
978-1-62288-005-8
.
- Partly Cloudy: Poems of love and longing
(Harcourt, 2009)
- A Simple Plan
(
Chronicle Books
, 2007)
- One Kind of Faith
(
Chronicle Books
, 2003)
- A Natural Man
(
Chronicle Books
, 1999)
- Junior College
(1997)
- New and selected poems
(
Chronicle Books
, 1995)
National Book Award
finalist
- Canto Familiar/Familiar Song
(1994)
- Neighborhood Odes
(1992)
- Home Course in Religion
(1991)
- Saturday at the Canal
(1991)
- Who Will Know Us?
(1990)
- Black Hair
(1985)
- Where Sparrows Work Hard
(1981)
- The Tale of Sunlight
(1978)
- The Elements of San Joaquin
(1977)
- Waiting at the curb: Lynwood California (1967)
Young adult/children's books
[
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]
- Baseball in April
(1990)
- A Fire in My Hands
(1991)
- Taking Sides
(1991)
- Pacific Crossing
(1992), sequel to Taking Sides added by DaeQuan Jones
- Too Many Tamales
(1992)
- The Skirt
(1992)
- The Pool Party
(1993)
- Local News
(1993)
- Jesse
(1994)
- 7th grade
(1995)
- Crazy Weekend
(1994)
- Boys at Work
(1995)
- Summer On Wheels
(1995)
- Canto Familiar
(1995)
- Buried Onions (1997)
- The Cat's Meow
(1997)
- Jessie De La Cruz
: A Profile of a United Farm Worker
(2000)
- Fearless Fernie
(2002)
- If the Shoe Fits
(2002)
- Marisol
(2005)
- When Dad Came Back
(2011), ebook
Chato
[
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]
Beginning in 1995 with
Chato's Kitchen
(
Chato y su cena
),
[11]
Soto released a series of children's picture books in Spanish and English about a real, cool cat (
gato
), a low rider from the
barrio
of
East Los Angeles
. They were illustrated by Susan Guevara, and the second one
Chato and the Party Animals
(
Chato y los amigos pachangueros.
) (2000) won the
Pura Belpre Medal
for best illustration in 2002.
[12]
The series continued with
Chato Goes Cruisin'
(2004)
[13]
and
Chato's Day of Dead
(2006).
Anthologies as editor
[
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]
- Entrance: Four Latino Poets
(1976)
- California Childhood
(1988)
- Pieces of Heart
(1993)
- Afterlife
(1999)
Memoir
[
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]
- Why I Don't Write Children's Literature
(2015)
- What Poets Are Like: Up and Down with the Writing Life
(2013)
- Living Up the Street
(1985),
American Book Award
- Small Faces
(1986)
- Lesser Evils: Ten Quartets
(1988)
- A Summer Life
(1990)
- The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy
(2001)
- The Jacket
(1983)
Plays
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]
Film
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Gary Soto at NotableBiographies.com
, accessed August 28, 2009.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Soto's FAQ page"
. Archived from
the original
on January 4, 2010
. Retrieved
August 29,
2009
.
- ^
University of California news item, 12 June 2001
Archived
July 20, 2011, at the
Wayback Machine
, accessed August 28, 2009.
- ^
University of California news item, 30 January 2002
Archived
October 18, 2008, at the
Wayback Machine
, accessed August 28, 2009.
- ^
Pattonville School District website news
, accessed February 23, 2010
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Soto's online biography"
. Archived from
the original
on August 30, 2009
. Retrieved
August 29,
2009
.
- ^
Amazon reviews
, accessed November 24, 2009.
- ^
"Hispanic Heritage Awards for Literature"
. Hispanic Heritage Foundation
. Retrieved
January 11,
2011
.
- ^
Gary Soto Literary Museum Homepage
Archived
December 23, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine
, accessed December 8, 2016.
- ^
ChLA Newsletter
Archived
July 14, 2014, at the
Wayback Machine
, Vol. 20, Issue 2 (Autumn 2013). pp. 6?7. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
- ^
a
Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award
winner
"Rivera Book Award: Past Winners"
. Archived from
the original
on October 22, 2010.
- ^
"The Pura Belpre Award winners, 1996-present"
. Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), American Library Association. November 30, 1999.
Archived
from the original on October 30, 2011.
- ^
Reynolds, Angela J. (July 2005). "
Chato Goes Cruisin'
".
School Library Journal
.
51
(7): 28.
- ^
https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-No-guitar-blues/oclc/317395765
- ^
https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/10rhv18/alma991029424609706532
- ^
https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/10rhv18/alma991029875269706532
Further reading
[
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]
- Gary Soto,
Richard Hugo
,
John Haines
,
William Matthews
,
Reg Saner
,
Richard Shelton
,
William Stafford
, and
David Wagoner
(1982).
Wild, Peter
and Graziano, Frank (ed.).
New Poetry of the American West
. Durango, CO: Logbridge-Rhodes. pp.
104
.
ISBN
978-0937406199
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
OCLC
8589531
,
655452420
,
610178960
(print and on-line)
External links
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]
Wikiquote has quotations related to
Gary Soto
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