- Oscar Casares
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Oscar Casares Born May 7, 1964
Brownsville, TexasOccupation Author, Professor of Creative Writing Language English Nationality American Ethnicity Mexican-American Oscar Casares (born May 7, 1964) is an American writer and professor of creative writing. He is the author of Brownsville: Stories and Amigoland. Casares teaches at the University of Texas at Austin where he is the Susan Taylor McDaniel Fellow in Creative Writing and directs the Master of Fine Arts Program in English.
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Life and career
Casares is a fourth generation American of Mexican descent born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, a town on the southernmost tip of Texas on the border of Mexico. He is the youngest of four children. Casares was born when his parents were in their 40s, providing him with a lifetime of exposure to older adults which seems to have influenced his writing so far.[1]
Casares attended the University of Texas at Austin where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in advertising in 1987. His first ten years of professional experience were as an advertising copywriter.
In 1997, six months after he started writing short stories, Casares left advertising to pursue his writing more fully. In 1999, he was accepted to the Iowa Writers' Workshop where he received his MFA in 2001.
In 2002, Little, Brown & Company published his first book, Brownsville: Stories. Drawing upon his marketing experience, Casares approached Texas grocery chain H-E-B about featuring his book in their stores, as most of the communities in South Texas have little access to traditional literary outlets. In addition to selling both of Casares’ books, H-E-B has hosted book signings where the author was able to have more direct contact with the people who inspire his work.[2]
Since 2003, Casares’ essays have appeared in the New York Times, Texas Monthly, The Best American Sports Writing, and on All Things Considered for National Public Radio. His short stories and essays have been anthologized in several textbooks.
In 2004, Casares moved to Austin to begin teaching creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He lives there with his wife and two children. In 2009, he published his first novel, Amigoland. In 2010, he was appointed to direct the University’s newly founded MFA Program in English.
Literary work
Brownsville: Stories, published in 2003, is a collection of short stories featuring fictional characters in Casares’ hometown of Brownsville, Texas. It was described in the New York Times Book Review:
- In Oscar Casares's Brownsville, everyone is so close, tucked up snug against the Rio Grande, that people's quarrels irresistibly spill into one another's lives, like the Mexican soap operas that beam into their TV sets.... With a quiet mastery of the smallest detail, Casares puts us on neighborly terms with the locals.
Brownsville was selected by the American Library Association as a Notable Book of 2004, and, in addition earned critical praise from such publications as the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly. The collection is now taught in many high school and university courses across the country.
In 2009, Casares published his first novel, Amigoland, about an elderly barber who breaks his brother out of a retirement home in Brownsville to go on a quest through Mexico. Amigoland received a "starred review" from Publishers Weekly and was later selected by the 2010 Mayor's Book Club in Austin, Texas for that year's citywide reading campaign. Casares stated in an interview that he had already begun writing about the nursing home featured in Amigoland when his own father in Brownsville, Texas broke his hip, forcing the family to move him to a nursing home where he lived the remainder of his years.
Awards
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2006)
James A. Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award (2002)
Dobie Paisano Award from the Texas Institute of Letters (2002)Bibliography
Novels
Amigoland (August 10, 2009) ISBN 0316159697
Short Story Collections
Brownsville: Stories (March 6, 2003) ISBN 0316146803
Selected Short Stories
"Mr. Z."
"RG"
"Chango"
"Domingo"
"Big Jesse, Little Jesse"
"Charro"
"Jerry Fuentes"
"Yolanda"
"Mrs. Perez"Selected Essays
"Imaginary Friends," Texas Monthly, December 2010[3]
"The Departed," Texas Monthly, April 2010[4]
"You Must Read This: The Burning Plain," National Public Radio, October 2009[5]
"Grass Roots," Texas Monthly, December 2008[6]
"Ready for Some Futbol?", Texas Monthly, November 2006[7]
"In the Year 1974", Texas Monthly, March 2005 [8]
"Crossing the Border Without Losing Your Past," New York Times, September 2003[9]References
- ^ Maggie, Galehouse (August 9, 2009). "Oscar Casares uses uncles' old tales as inspiration for first book". Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/life/books/article/Oscar-Casares-uses-uncles-old-tales-as-1730896.php. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
- ^ Michael, Schaub. "An Interview With Oscar Casares". Bookslut. Bookslut. http://www.bookslut.com/features/2003_08_000375.php. Retrieved August 2003.
- ^ Casares, Oscar (December 2010). "Imaginary Friends". Texas Monthly. http://m.texasmonthly.com/id/15329/Essay/#part1.
- ^ Casares, Oscar (April 2010). "The Departed". Texas Monthly. http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2010-04-01/casares.
- ^ "A Wild, 'Burning' Journey Back To Old Mexico". NPR. October 15, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113832491. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
- ^ Casares, Oscar (December 2008). "Grass Roots". Texas Monthly. http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2008-12-01/casares.
- ^ Oscar, Casares (November 2006). "Ready for some futbol?". Texas Monthly (November 2006): 130–142. http://www.oscarcasares.com/essays.html. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ^ Casares, Oscar. "In the year 1974". Texas Monthly. http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2005-03-01/casares. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ^ Casares, Oscar (September 16, 2003). "Crossing the Border Without Losing the Past". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/16/opinion/crossing-the-border-without-losing-your-past.html. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1964 births
- Living people
- People from Brownsville, Texas
- American writers of Mexican descent
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