Gary Soto
Encyclopedia
Gary Soto is a Mexican-American author
and poet
.
Mexican-American parents Manuel (1910–1957) and Angie Soto (1923-). In his youth, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley
and in factories in Fresno. Gary's father died in 1957, when he was just five years old. Because his family had to struggle to find work, he had little time or encouragement for school, hence, he was not a good student. Yet Soto claims that in spite of his early academic record, he had begun his literary career by reading Ernest Hemingway
, John Steinbeck
, Jules Verne
, Robert Frost
and Thornton Wilder
.
He attended Fresno City College
and California State University, Fresno
, where he earned his B.A.
degree in English in 1974, studying with poet Philip Levine
. He did graduate work in poetry writing at the University of California, Irvine
, where he earned his M.F.A.
in 1976. He states that he wanted to become a writer in college after discovering the novelist Gabriel García Márquez
and the contemporary poets Edward Field, W. S. Merwin
, Charles Simic
, James Wright
and Pablo Neruda
, whom he calls "the master of them all."
Soto's poetry focus on daily experiences, often reflecting on his life as a Chicano
. Regarding his relationship with the Mexican-American community, Soto has said:
Soto also writes novels, plays and memoirs, and has edited several literary anthologies. His story "The No-Guitar Blues" was made into a film, and he produced another film based on his book "The Pool Party." He is a prolific writer of children's books.
About his work Joyce Carol Oates
has said,
Soto has taught at University of California, Berkeley
and at University of California, Riverside
, where he was a Distinguished Professor.
Soto has devoted much time to being the Young People's Ambassador for the United Farm Workers of America, introducing young people to the organization's work and goals.
At present, Soto lives in northern California, dividing his time between Berkeley
and Fresno, but he is no longer teaching.
Soto became the sponsor for the Pattonville High School Spanish National Honor Society in 2009.
in 1976 prior to its publication in the Pitt Poetry Series
in 1977. The New York Times Book Review also honored the book by reprinting six of the poems.
His second collection, The Tale of Sunlight (1978), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
in Poetry.
In 1985, his memoir Living Up the Street received the Before Columbus Foundation
's American Book Award
.
In 1993, Soto received the Andrew Carnegie
Medal for Film Excellence from the Association for Library Service to Children
for his production work on the film The Pool Party.
In 1999, Soto received the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature
, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association
, and the PEN
Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes.
Other honors include the "Discovery"/The Nation
Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award from Poetry
. He has received The California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award (twice), a Recogniton 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.
The library at Winchell Elementary School in Fresno was named after Soto.
In 2010, the Old Administration Building at Fresno City College will become the permanent home of the Gary Soto Literary Museum.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Mexican-American parents Manuel (1910–1957) and Angie Soto (1923-). In his youth, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
and in factories in Fresno. Gary's father died in 1957, when he was just five years old. Because his family had to struggle to find work, he had little time or encouragement for school, hence, he was not a good student. Yet Soto claims that in spite of his early academic record, he had begun his literary career by reading Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
and Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
.
He attended Fresno City College
Fresno City College
Fresno City College is a community college in Fresno, California. Established in 1910, it was the first community college in California and the second in the nation...
and California State University, Fresno
California State University, Fresno
California State University, Fresno, often referred to as Fresno State University and synonymously known in athletics as Fresno State , is one of the leading campuses of the California State University system, located at the northeast edge of Fresno, California, USA.The campus sits at the foot of...
, where he earned his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in English in 1974, studying with poet Philip Levine
Philip Levine (poet)
Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
. He did graduate work in poetry writing at the University of California, Irvine
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine , founded in 1965, is one of the ten campuses of the University of California, located in Irvine, California, USA...
, where he earned his M.F.A.
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in 1976. He states that he wanted to become a writer in college after discovering the novelist Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
and the contemporary poets Edward Field, W. S. Merwin
W. S. Merwin
William Stanley Merwin is an American poet, credited with over 30 books of poetry, translation and prose. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematically characterized by indirect, unpunctuated narration. In the 1980s and 1990s, Merwin's writing influence derived from...
, Charles Simic
Charles Simic
Dušan "Charles" Simić is a Serbian-American poet, and was co-Poetry Editor of the Paris Review. He was appointed the fifteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 2007.-Early years:...
, James Wright
James Wright (poet)
James Arlington Wright was an American poet.Wright first emerged on the literary scene in 1956 with The Green Wall, a collection of formalist verse that was awarded the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Prize. But by the early 1960s, Wright, increasingly influenced by the Spanish language...
and Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, whom he calls "the master of them all."
Soto's poetry focus on daily experiences, often reflecting on his life as a Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
. Regarding his relationship with the Mexican-American community, Soto has said:
"...as a writer, my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I’m not a cheerleader. I’m one who provides portraits of people in the rush of life."
Soto also writes novels, plays and memoirs, and has edited several literary anthologies. His story "The No-Guitar Blues" was made into a film, and he produced another film based on his book "The Pool Party." He is a prolific writer of children's books.
About his work Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
has said,
"Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life."
Soto has taught at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and at University of California, Riverside
University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United...
, where he was a Distinguished Professor.
Soto has devoted much time to being the Young People's Ambassador for the United Farm Workers of America, introducing young people to the organization's work and goals.
At present, Soto lives in northern California, dividing his time between Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and Fresno, but he is no longer teaching.
Soto became the sponsor for the Pattonville High School Spanish National Honor Society in 2009.
Awards and honors
Soto's first collection of poems,The Elements of San Joaquin, won the United States Award of the International Poetry ForumSamuel John Hazo
Dr. Samuel John Hazo is an author of books, including poetry, fiction, essays and plays, and the founder and director of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also McAnulty Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at Duquesne University, where he taught for...
in 1976 prior to its publication in the Pitt Poetry Series
Pitt Poetry Series
The Pitt Poetry Series, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, is one of the largest and best known lists of contemporary American poetry.-History:...
in 1977. The New York Times Book Review also honored the book by reprinting six of the poems.
His second collection, The Tale of Sunlight (1978), was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in Poetry.
In 1985, his memoir Living Up the Street received the Before Columbus Foundation
Before Columbus Foundation
The Before Columbus Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed, Victor Hernández Cruz, Shawn Wong and Rudolfo Anaya to be "a multi-ethnic organizing dedicated to promoting a pan-cultural view of America," especially through the promotion of multicultural writers.One of...
's American Book Award
American Book Award
The American Book Award was established in 1978 by the Before Columbus Foundation. It seeks to recognize outstanding literary achievement by contemporary American authors, without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background, or genre...
.
In 1993, Soto received the Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
Medal for Film Excellence from the Association for Library Service to Children
Association for Library Service to Children
The Association for Library Service to Children is a division of the American Library Association. Its members are concerned with the profession of children's Librarianship...
for his production work on the film The Pool Party.
In 1999, Soto received the Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature
Hispanic Heritage Foundation
The Hispanic Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization operating out of Reston, Virginia that works to increase the number of Latina and Latino leaders in society...
, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association
National Education Association
The National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
, and the PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes.
Other honors include the "Discovery"/The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award from Poetry
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
. He has received The California Library Association's John and Patricia Beatty Award (twice), a Recogniton of Merit from the Claremont Graduate School for Baseball in April, the Silver Medal from the Commonwealth Club of California
Commonwealth Club of California
The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States...
, and the Tomás Rivera
Tomás Rivera
Tomás Rivera was a Chicano author, poet, and educator. He was born in Texas to migrant farm workers, and worked in the fields as a young boy...
Prize.
The library at Winchell Elementary School in Fresno was named after Soto.
In 2010, the Old Administration Building at Fresno City College will become the permanent home of the Gary Soto Literary Museum.