TIL Award Winners Panel at 2020 Texas Book Festival

As president of the Texas Institute of Letters, Sergio Troncoso moderates a panel of three TIL Award Winners at the 2020 Virtual Texas Book Festival: Ruben Degollado, Lupe Mendez, and Naomi Shihab Nye. All three read from their award-winning books and discuss important literary questions as well as questions about their work and life during COVID-19. 

https://youtu.be/zvN591OYRf0

 

 

Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds

I am the editor of a great new anthology forthcoming in 2021, Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M Press and the Wittliff Collections). Twenty-five of the thirty works in this collection are unpublished, from Sandra Cisneros, Reyna Grande, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Rigoberto Gonzalez, ire'ne lara silva, Matt Mendez, Diana Lopez, Alex Espinoza, Daniel Chacon, Helena Maria Viramontes, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Deborah Paredez, David Romo, Francisco Cantu, Domingo Martinez, Oscar Casares, Lorraine Lopez, David Dominguez, Stephanie Li, Sheryl Luna, Octavio Quintanilla, Diana Marie Delgado, Octavio Solis, Severo Perez, and Ruben Degollado! Here's the terrific cover by Antonio Castro and a blurb from Juan Felipe Herrera.

"Such a window, such an ax, into the hard, human struggles of writers, sisters and brothers here — resolving, harmonizing and perhaps, simply just telling their Nepantlas. These lives in-between bridges of culture, of gender, of memory and presence, invisibility and courage, of raped bodies on the precipice of healing and wholeness, of speaking versus silence, of shame in-between wholeness, of big time university life then riding back to Segundo Barrio DNA. And of mothers drifting and daughters blazing in the Now. Each page, a revelation. Each story, a valley of tears and a mountain of triumph. This Nepantla Familia will tear your heart open. You will finally get to feel like a human being. You will have humanity in your hands. One of a kind, I thank Troncoso for this anthology — I bow before these writers of truth and love. A mega-ground-crackling and life expanding house of diamonds."

—Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the USA, Emeritus

 

To pre-order your copy, visit Texas A&M University Press: 

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623499631/nepantla-familias/

Revista Latina North Carolina Interview with Sergio Troncoso

For those of you who read Spanish, here's an interview about A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son (Cinco Puntos Press) in Revista Latina North Carolina. I hope you enjoy it.

 

Para aquellos que leen español, aquí hay una entrevista sobre A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's (Cinco Puntos Press) en la Revista Latina North Carolina. Espero que lo disfruten.

 

https://www.revistalatinanc.com/2020/11/12/sergio-troncoso-en-entrevista-para-revista-latina-nc/

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

New Books Network Interview with Sergio Troncoso

Galit Gottlieb of New Books Network interviews Sergio Troncoso about A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son (Cinco Puntos Press), the landscape of west Texas versus northwest Connecticut, family as a source of inspiration, Nietzsche's perspectivism in storytelling, and his abuelita as his muse.

https://newbooksnetwork.com/sergio-troncoso-a-peculiar-kind-of-immigrants-son-cinco-puntos-press-2020/

A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son Wins International Latino Book Award

Last night my book A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son (Cinco Puntos Press) won First Place in the category Best Collection of Short Stories (English/Bilingual) at the International Latino Book Awards. The judges called the collection "poignant and powerful; a tour de force!"

I am grateful for the honor and want to thank the judges for choosing my book. The competition was stiff, and Edward James Olmos was the emcee of the virtual live event and had presenters like

Juan Felipe Herrera, Eva Longoria, Esmeralda Santiago, and Isabel Allende. I was shocked when they read my name. Thank you. I was so excited last night it took me a while to fall asleep!

 

https://www.latinobookawards.org/

 

Bookchat Interview with Sergio Troncoso

Bookchat: You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

Sergio Troncoso: "We would have to be drinking, so we may or may not be eating. I would have James Joyce, Friedrich Nietzsche (we might need a translator who also serves drinks), and Virginia Woolf. They probably wouldn’t like each other, but in this imaginary drinking fest I could get them to have a drink or two (or three) and we could talk about literary ideas for at least a few hours. Then before the fistfights began I’d get them an Uber and tell them to get the hell out of my house."

https://swwordfiesta.org/bookchat-an-interview-with-sergio-troncoso/

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/

Albuquerque Journal Review: A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

"Sergio Troncoso demonstrates in the short-story collection A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son that he’s a master storyteller but with a special bent."

Thank you, Albuquerque Journal and David Steinberg.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1477173/two-story-collections-reflect-the-impact-of-living-and-working-in-the-southwest.html

Remembering Rudy Anaya

My article in the El Paso Times to remember Rudy Anaya. I think it will run in Sunday's print edition in the Opinion section. When the Times asked me to do it earlier this week, I dropped everything. I needed to do it for Rudy. Que descanse en paz.

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/opinion/2020/07/09/sergio-troncoso-remembers-great-writer-friend-rudolfo-rudy-anaya/5405469002/