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GARY SOTO is the author
of ten poetry collections for adults, most notably NEW AND
SELECTED POEMS, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles
Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His
recollections LIVING UP THE STREET received a Before
Columbus Foundation 1985 AMERICAN BOOK AWARD.
He grew up in a Mexican-American
community in Fresno, California, where at various times in
his childhood he wanted to be a priest, a hobo, and a
paleontologist. In college Soto, planned to study geology,
but then he discovered poetry. “That's when I decided to
become a writer.” He graduated from California State
University at Fresno with a degree in English, and then
achieved a Master of Fine Arts in Creative
Writing.
“A lot of my work seems
autobiographical, because I write a lot about growing up as
a Mexican American. It's important to me to create and share
new stories about my heritage. It's a huge part of my life…
For me, the joy of being a writer is to take things I see
and hear and then rearrange them. I like to tamper with
reality and create new possibilities. In short, not all my
work is autobiographical, but it could be.”
His poems have appeared in many
literary magazines, including The Nation, Ploughshares, The
Iowa Review, Ontario Review and most frequently Poetry,
which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the
Levinson Award and by featuring him in Poets in Person.
He is one of the youngest poets
to appear in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. He has
received the Discovery-The Nation Prize, the U.S. Award of
the International Poetry Forum, 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 Tomás Rivera Prize, in addition
to fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National
Endowment for the Arts (twice), and the California Arts
Council.
In 1999 he received the
Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the
Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National
Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award
for Petty Crimes.
He serves as Young People's
Ambassador for the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA)
and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).
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