Sergio Troncoso
AUTHOR

Sergio Troncoso

Literature & Fiction
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Sergio Troncoso is the author of NOBODY’S PILGRIMS, A PECULIAR KIND OF IMMIGRANT’S SON, CROSSING BORDERS: PERSONAL ESSAYS, FROM THIS WICKED PATCH OF DUST, THE NATURE OF TRUTH and THE LAST TORTILLA AND OTHER STORIES; and as editor, NEPANTLA FAMILIAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE ON FAMILIES IN BETWEEN WORLDS and OUR LOST BORDER: ESSAYS ON LIFE AMID THE NARCO-VIOLENCE. He often writes about the United States-Mexico border, working-class immigrants, families and fatherhood, crossing cultural, psychological, and philosophical borders, and the border beyond the border. Troncoso teaches at the Yale Writers’ Workshop in New Haven, Connecticut. A past president of the Texas Institute of Letters, he has also served as a judge for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the New Letters Literary Awards in the Essay category. His work has appeared in Pleiades, Texas Highways, Houston Chronicle, CNN Opinion, New Letters, Yale Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Texas Monthly. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received two graduate degrees in international relations and philosophy from Yale University. A Fulbright scholar, Troncoso was also inducted into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Alumni Hall of Fame, Texas Institute of Letters, and Texas Literary Hall of Fame. He was named a Fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters, the first Mexican American writer to receive this distinction. Among the numerous literary awards Troncoso has won are the Kay Cattarulla Award for Best Short Story, Premio Aztlan Literary Prize, Gold Medal for Best Novel-Adventure or Drama from the International Latino Book Awards, Bronze Award for Anthologies from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, Gold Medal for Best Collection of Short Stories from the International Latino Book Awards, Southwest Book Award, Bronze Award for Essays from ForeWord Reviews, and the Silver Award for Multicultural Adult Fiction from ForeWord Reviews. The El Paso City Council voted unanimously to rename the public library branch in Ysleta as the Sergio Troncoso Branch Library. His literary papers are archived at The Wittliff Collections in San Marcos, Texas. NOBODY’S PILGRIMS is a story about three teenagers in search of their American Dreams who drive across country in a stolen pickup as evil people are after the contraband hidden in the truck. Ben Fountain: “In this superb novel, Sergio Troncoso gives us a fresh take not only on the great American road trip, but on the American Dream itself in all its glorious and increasingly fragile promise.” NEPANTLA FAMILIAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE ON FAMILIES IN BETWEEN WORLDS received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews: “A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity.” A PECULIAR KIND OF IMMIGRANT'S SON is a collection of linked short stories about immigration and perspectivism. Junot Díaz: “A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son is Troncoso at his absolute finest ... a masterwork ... An extraordinary performance.” CROSSING BORDERS: PERSONAL ESSAYS is a collection of essays about how Troncoso made the leap from growing up poor along the border to the Ivy League, his wife’s battle against breast cancer, his struggles as a writer in New York and Texas, fatherhood, and interfaith marriage. The Portland Book Review praised the book as “Heart-wrenching.” FROM THIS WICKED PATCH OF DUST is a story about the Martinez family from rural Ysleta, Texas struggling to stay together despite cultural clashes, different religions, and politics after September 11, 2001. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews praised the novel as “an engaging literary achievement” and chose it as one of the best books of the year. THE NATURE OF TRUTH is a philosophical thriller about a Yale research student who discovers that his boss, a renowned professor, hides a Nazi past. Rigoberto Gonzalez for The El Paso Times: “Sergio Troncoso’s The Nature of Truth single-handedly redefines the Chicano novel and the literary thriller.” Booklist hailed Troncoso’s first book, THE LAST TORTILLA AND OTHER STORIES, with “Enthusiastically recommended,” and Publishers Weekly said, “These stories are richly satisfying.” OUR LOST BORDER: ESSAYS ON LIFE AMID THE NARCO-VIOLENCE is a collection of essays on how the bi-national and bi-cultural existence along the United States-Mexico border has been disrupted by drug violence. Publishers Weekly called it an “eye-opening collection of essays.”
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