Librarians Select Nobody's Pilgrims for Top Ten List of In the Margins Book Awards

Librarians select Nobody's Pilgrims for the Top Ten List in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Social Advocacy of the IN THE MARGINS BOOK AWARDS for 2023. So grateful for librarians reaching out to readers often overlooked, underrepresented in literature.

"Nobody's Pilgrims offers a stark vision of a country whose social ills have sullied the path to the pursuit of happiness. Yet its intrepid protagonists Turi and Molly persevere, charting their own map and adapting, like generations of dreamers, immigrants, and adventurers before them, to the latest hurdles of our troubled world. Sergio Troncoso has given us a timely dystopian tale heavy with anguish but invigorated by resilience."
--Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa

https://inthemarginssite.blog/2023/02/09/2023-press-release/

Brad King Interviews Sergio Troncoso on Nobody's Pilgrims

The Downtown Writers Jam's Brad King has a lively conversation with Sergio Troncoso about his new novel, Nobody's Pilgrims, what advice he would give his younger self, what it is like to be a writer, good advice he received from others like Professor John Womack at Harvard, meeting George W. Bush at the Texas Book Festival, and a story about his childhood when he refused to work for his father because he wanted to focus on school. And the family fight that followed.

https://thewritersjam.com/after-party-episode-9-sergio-troncoso/

Austin Liti Limits Interviews Sergio Troncoso

Scott Semegran of Austin Liti Limits interviews me about Nobody's Pilgrims, the writing craft, the connections between The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Nobody's Pilgrims, and if heaven exists what would I like to hear God say when I arrive at the check-in desk. Stay until the lighting round of questions at the end! I hope you enjoy it.

 

https://youtu.be/WfPaJ4yB4QY

Texas Monthly's Profile of Sergio Troncoso

In the August 2022 issue of Texas Monthly: 

"The ‘Nobody’ in the title is there because they’re outsiders,' Troncoso says. 'They don’t belong anywhere, even within their own families. They’re orphans—or are for all practical purposes.' Over the course of their drive across the country, Turi and Arnulfo are treated with suspicion and even outright hostility from complete strangers. The novel reflects Troncoso’s perspective that 'Mexicanos and undocumented immigrants are much more akin to the original Pilgrims.'

Nobody’s Pilgrims celebrates outsiders in general and immigrants in particular, an ethos that was central to Troncoso’s recent two-year tenure as president of the Texas Institute of Letters. 'I threw my heart and soul into the TIL,' he says. 'That meant representing all of Texas. We inducted more African Americans than ever before. During my tenure, we gave the Lifetime Achievement Award to Benjamin Alire Sáenz, who probably should have won it ten years ago. And this year we gave it to Celeste Bedford Walker, the first African American to ever win the award. It’s long overdue, in my opinion; she’s a great playwright. The organization truly is morphing into something beyond white guys from Dallas and Austin.'"

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/sergio-troncoso-making-texas-literature-representative/