HOUSTON, TX September 2, 2016—Acclaimed author and filmmaker Jesús Salvador Treviño is the recipient of a 2016 American Book Award for his book of interrelated stories, Return to Arroyo Grande. Weaving magical realism with issues of loss, memory and identity, Jesús Salvador Treviño once again confirms his place as a powerful storyteller in Chicano—and American—literature.
The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. Created in 1978, the American Book Awards have recognized outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. All winners will be formally recognized in an awards ceremony on Sunday, October 30, from 2-5pm at the SF JAZZ Center (Joe Henderson Lab, 201 Franklin Street) in San Francisco, California. This event is free and open to the public.
Weird things continue to happen to the characters that Treviño introduced in his captivating debut, The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories. At the theme park where Choo Choo Torres works, people begin to disappear—and then reappear slightly changed; are they moving back and forth between alternate universes? And Jeannie de la Cruz has very distinct memories of seeing her partner Gale run over by a speeding taxi in Mexico City; how can she still be alive? Many in these interrelated stories have left Arroyo Grande to follow their dreams, but in the raucous title story they all return to their hometown in a resounding affirmation of the power of community.
The book has been widely praised. The Monitor called Treviño “a trailblazer in Latino speculative arts,” saying “the intertwined stories in this latest book dispense with some of the modern fads in genre fiction, taking an old-school approach to plotting reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits.” According to New Pages, it is “a fun read full of imagination and joy” and “the description of the tight-knit Chicano community is illuminating, water-tight and rich with entertaining details.”
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JESÚS SALVADOR TREVIÑO is an award-winning filmmaker, renowned for his pioneering documentaries and feature films about the Chicano experience. Treviño has continued his commitment to Hispanic civil rights by serving as the executive producer of such important documentary projects as the acclaimed four-part PBS series, Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, while producing and/or directing television dramas such as Resurrection Boulevard and NYPD Blue. He is the author of two works of fiction, The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories (Arte Público Press, 1995), and The Skyscraper that Flew and Other Stories (Arte Público Press, 2005), and a memoir, Eyewitness: A Filmmaker’s Memoir of the Chicano Movement (Arte Público Press, 2001). He lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Arte Público Press is the nation’s largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters, and customs of Hispanic culture in the United States. Based at the University of Houston, Arte Público Press, Piñata Books and the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project provide the most widely recognized and extensive showcase for Hispanic literary arts and creativity. For more information, please visit our website at www.artepublicopress.com.