Photo courtesy of Francisco Stork’s website
As we have seen so far this year, there are many things that set Hispanic authors apart in the literary world. This week, we are going to see yet another way that an author who writes literature for young adults takes his experiences as a Mexican-American youth and creatively interprets them for young people. We will be looking at the work of author Francisco X. Stork.
Stork was born in Mexico in the early 1950s to a single mother. As a child, his family moved from Mexico to El Paso, Texas because his step-father was in search of work. It was his step-father who gave him his first portable typewriter for his seventh birthday when Stork announced he wanted to be a writer. After facing numerous hardships, including the death of his step-father, Stork was eventually awarded a scholarship to a local Jesuit high school in El Paso. Later, he would receive a scholarship to attend Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama as well. Near the end of his undergraduate career, he won a Danforth Fellowship which allowed him to conduct graduate work at Harvard where he studied Latin American Literature. He would also go on to pursue his law degree at Columbia Law School. Currently, Stork works as an attorney for a state agency that develops affordable housing in Boston.
As of now, Stork has authored five novels. His work tends to be most appropriate for young adults, and it focuses on Chicano characters coming of age. These books include: Irises, Marcelo in the Real World, Last Summer of the Death Warriors, Behind the Eyes, and The Way of the Jaguar.
I hope you will check out some of Stork’s work, especially Marcelo in the Real World, which is this month’s featured book.
Until Next Time,
Neoshia
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