Sergio Troncoso: A Writer's Unprecedented Journey

Sergio Troncoso answers questions sent to him by Christina Chiu for a series on a writer's journey and craft: Personal Journey, Writer's Process, Guidance and Inspiration, Craft Sustainability, Three Words of Advice.

 • Personal Journey When did you start writing? When did you realize/consider yourself a writer? What have been struggles? How did you overcome them? What has motivated you?

 • Writer’s Process What is your process? Are you a 9-5er? A middle of the night-writer? A “spurt" writer? Is there anything you do that you find particularly helpful? Do you have a lucky trinket or habit?

 • Support Guidance and Inspiration Do you ever get discouraged? How do you handle it? Do you have a support group? Writer group? Community group? Where do you draw inspiration? Do you get writer’s block? How do you get over it? How do you handle interference—a new situation that makes it difficult to write/work? 

• Craft Sustainability How do you sustain being a writer? What are some pitfalls to look out for? Any recommendations as to how to make it for the long haul? How do you fill the well?

 • Three words of added advice What are they and why? Anecdote? (also, do you live by them?)

 https://youtu.be/lxgPX55y4O4

Houston Chronicle Op-Ed: Los Viejitos, our Heritage, and the Pandemic

Sergio Troncoso: “My mother is the storyteller now, the one with great stories of grit and perseverance that give me a glimpse of how I became who I am today. Just like my grandmother. Their history is our history. Our present becomes more meaningful when we have our viejitos to tell us their stories. If this presidential election is about anything, it should be about why they should always matter to us.”

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Essay-Protect-los-viejitos-our-oldsters-and-15651571.php

Celebrating Cinco Punto Press's 35th Anniversary

I wrote this piece for El Paso Matters to celebrate Cinco Puntos Press's 35th Anniversary:

"My experience with them has been like coming home as a writer: Lee is a first-class editor with an uncanny attention to detail, and Jessica Powers, their “vice president of imagination,” has been the best editor and reader I have ever had. When I want to have an hours-long conversation about character, a complex plot, El Paso, and the literary history of the border, these are people I trust and listen to and appreciate for their expertise and friendship."

https://elpasomatters.org/2020/08/28/acclaimed-author-sergio-troncoso-celebrates-cinco-puntos-presss-35-years-in-el-paso/

Best of Texas: A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son (Cinco Puntos Press) makes the Best of Texas 2019 list from Lone Star Literary Life. Thank you Michelle Newby Lancaster and Si Dunn.

“A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son, an outstanding collection of connected short stories uniquely reflecting life along the troubled Texas-Mexico border, proves the continued vitality of short fiction as a form. Troncoso tells skillfully nuanced stories from the perspective of a poor immigrant’s son who has found success within the world of America’s elite universities and financial power, yet still feels adrift and alienated, seeking deeper meanings.”

https://www.lonestarliterary.com/content/best-texas-2019

Texas Observer: A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

From the Texas Observer on A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son:

"From the start, this book takes place not so much at the border of things as on their edge: the contact zones of life and death, past and present, here and there, old and young. In the characters’ minds, we find ourselves on one side of a divide, perpetually looking back or across. With Troncoso, that endeavor is often as dark as it is funny. The El Paso author’s newest collection depicts contemporary Mexican American life with a characteristic blend of sorrow and humor. It’s his most powerful work yet, and an essential addition to the Latinx canon."

I am so grateful to the Texas Observer and Daniel Peña.

https://www.texasobserver.org/sergio-troncoso-peculiar-kind-immigrants-son-borderlands/

Words on a Wire: A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

I was recently interviewed by Daniel Chacon for KTEP's Words on a Wire. I talk about A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son and the 'map' of the table of contents of the thirteen stories, in which characters appear and reappear within groups to give a different perspective and refracted vision on these characters. I also talk about how I created a whole from these stories, by comparing the book to an album of music with a certain vision and message. I discuss the most important purpose of writing, especially during moments like the Wal-Mart massacre in El Paso, when all writers must counteract the stereotypes outsiders have about our border communities. Empathy should be at the root of our work as writers.

https://www.ktep.org/post/words-wire-sergio-troncoso-2

Lone Star Literary Life's Review: A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

Lone Star Literary Life's review of A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son, by Si Dunn.

"El Paso native Sergio Troncoso’s excellent new short story collection, A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son, takes the reader far, yet not far at all, from the currently troubled Texas-Mexico border...

In A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son, Sergio Troncoso tells skillfully nuanced stories from the perspective of a poor immigrants’ son who has found success within the world of America’s elite universities and financial power, yet still feels adrift and alienated and seeks deeper meanings.

Where he finds hope for the future, his and the world’s, is in the simple yet wise words of his now-departed relatives and in memories and lessons ingrained in him at the Texas-Mexico border."

 https://www.lonestarliterary.com/content/lone-star-review-peculiar-kind-immigrants-son

NBC News: Fifteen Great New Books for Hispanic Heritage Month

NBC News: Fifteen Great New Books for Hispanic Heritage Month. Thank you, Rigoberto Gonzalez, for putting A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son (Cinco Puntos Press) on this list!

"These poignant short stories shed a startling light on the middle-class experience of Chicanos in New York. An Ivy League education and job security in a cosmopolitan city far from their youth in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands doesn’t mean the American dream has been realized without further conflict... Sergio Troncoso dispels the myth of assimilation as a safe haven and reminds readers that distance from a working-class upbringing doesn’t absolve a person from the responsibility to one’s community. The wounds of leaving home never truly heal."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/15-great-new-books-latinos-hispanic-heritage-month-n1052451

Texas Institute of Letters: Literary Contests

The Texas Institute of Letters literary contests are now open with prizes totaling more than $22,000. Deadline is January 15, 2019.

Twelve categories:

• Jesse H. Jones Award for Fiction

• Carr P. Collins Award for Nonfiction

• Sergio Troncoso Award for Best Work of First Fiction

• Ramirez Scholarly Book Award

• Helen C. Smith Award for Poetry

• John A. Robertson Award For Best First Book Of Poetry

• Edwin "Bud" Shrake Award for Short Nonfiction

• Kay Cattarulla Short Story Award

• Fred Whitehead Award for Design of a Trade Book

• Jean Flynn Best Middle-Grade Book Award

• Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Book Award

• Texas Institute of Letters Best Children's Picture Book Award

Eligibility for the awards requires that the author be born in Texas or have lived in Texas for at least five consecutive years at some time. A work whose subject matter substantially concerns Texas is also eligible. Download the PDF below to fill out form for contest entry and to send work to judges.

http://www.texasinstituteofletters.org/awards/2018-contest-details.pdf

San Antonio, April 7, 2018

I'll be in San Antonio this weekend (4/6-4/7) for the Texas Institute of Letters' annual meeting and the San Antonio Book Festival. See you there!

SATURDAY APRIL 7, 9-10:30 am
Breakfast / New Member Readings
@ The Menger Hotel Ballroom. TIL Secretary Sergio Troncoso will be our emcee and he’ll also recognize the winners of our children’s book awards.

SATURDAY APRIL 7, 11:15 AM-12:15 PM
San Antonio Book Festival, Latino Collection Resource Center (in Central Library, 600 Soledad), Sergio Troncoso, Moderator, for Texas Institute of Letters: New Member Readings, with Daniel Chacón, Sasha Pimentel, José Antonio Rodríguez.

www.TexasInstituteofLetters.org