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Dagoberto Gilb

ダゴベルト・ギルブ

Dagoberto Gilb

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
Los Angeles
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Los Angeles (birth/raised) → El Paso (work and early writing) → San Marcos, Texas (Texas State University faculty) → Victoria, Texas (University of Houston–Victoria faculty)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Professor, Stonemason, Carpenter
Active Years
1976-2025
Affiliations
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners (union), Texas State University (faculty), University of Houston–Victoria (faculty, Executive Director of CentroVictoria)
Memberships
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
Influenced By
Raymond Carver

Education

University of California, Santa Barbara
Philosophy and Religious Studies (double major)
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1970s
Year of Graduation: 1974
Country: United States
Bachelor's degree with a double major in Philosophy and Religious Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara
Religious Studies
Degree: M.A.
Period: 1974–1976
Year of Graduation: 1976
Country: United States
Master's degree in Religious Studies

Awards

James D. Phelan Award
1984
Organization: San Francisco Foundation
Result: 受賞
Dobie-Paisano Fellowship
1987
Organization: Texas Institute of Letters
Result: 受賞
National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1992
Organization: National Endowment for the Arts
Result: 受賞
Whiting Award
1993
Organization: Whiting Foundation
Result: 受賞
PEN/Hemingway Award
1994
Work: The Magic of Blood
Category: 短編集
Organization: PEN/Hemingway Foundation
Result: 受賞
PEN/Faulkner Award (finalist)
1994
Work: The Magic of Blood
Organization: PEN
Result: ファイナリスト
Jesse Jones Texas Institute of Letters Award
1994
Work: The Magic of Blood
Organization: Texas Institute of Letters
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
1995
Organization: Guggenheim Foundation
Result: 受賞
National Book Critics Circle Award (finalist)
2003
Work: Gritos
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: ファイナリスト
Texas Book Festival Bookend Award
2007
Organization: Texas Book Festival
Result: 受賞
PEN Southwest Book Award
2008
Work: Hecho en Tejas
Organization: PEN America (PEN Southwest)
Result: 受賞
Gloria Anzaldúa Milagro Prize
2010
Organization: Macondo Foundation
Result: 受賞
Illumine Prize for Excellence in Fiction
2011
Organization: Austin Public Library Foundation
Result: 受賞
Barbara Jordan Media Award
2018
Organization: Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disability
Result: 受賞
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
2025
Work: A Passing West
Organization: PEN America
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Magic of Blood

1993 Short story collection

A collection of stories about Mexican American working-class characters living across the American Southwest. Noted for concise, candid first-person narratives about everyday lives and borderland experience.

workborderlandsclassidentity
Translations
  • Translated into multiple languages

The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña

1994 Novel

A novel about a drifter living on the margins in a YMCA on the El Paso border, exploring financial and geographic borders.

driftpovertyborder

Gritos

2003 Essay collection (nonfiction)

A collection of personal essays drawing on Gilb's experiences as a construction worker, teacher, and parent; claims space for Chicano voices in American letters.

personal narrativelaborcultural positioning

New Testaments

2024 Short story collection

A 2024 collection of short stories that reasserts Gilb's focus on the short form and resists stereotypical portrayals of Mexican American life.

diverse Chicano experienceseveryday fragments

A Passing West

2024 Essay collection

A 2024 follow-up to Gritos, collecting essays written since and demonstrating Gilb's art of the essay; includes artwork by César A. Martínez.

memoircultural criticismpersonal narrative

Bibliography

  • Winners on the Pass Line and Other Stories
  • The Magic of Blood
  • The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña
  • Woodcuts of Women
  • Gritos
  • Hecho en Tejas
  • The Flowers
  • Before the End, After the Beginning
  • Mexican American Literature: A Portable Anthology
  • New Testaments
  • A Passing West

Adaptations

  • Solo Dios Sabe (film)
  • Writ Writer (documentary)

Translations of Works

  • Works translated into French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, and Russian
  • Russian-language collection 'At the Border: Between Desperation and Hope' (Cyrillic), 2021

Style & Themes

Literary Style
concise, candid first-person narrationparable-like essays
Recurring Motifs
working-class lifeborderland experiencestransience/impermanenceunseen people

Health

  • brain injury/stroke (2009)
    2009–
    Affected his writing and life; he continued to write after recovery and produced work reflecting on impermanence.

Legacy

Dagoberto Gilb is a major voice in Chicano literature, acclaimed for candid portrayals of working-class and borderland life. He is recognized for his short stories and essays and for securing a place for Chicano voices in American letters.

Academic Societies

  • Texas Institute of Letters

In Popular Culture

  • Appeared in documentaries and had works adapted for film

Quotes

  • I label my narrative approach 'first-person stupid'.
    Source: Gritos / essays and interviews (2003)

Trivia

  • Started working at age 13 in industrial laundry and other jobs.
  • Worked in construction for 16 years and became a journeyman carpenter.
  • His works have been translated into multiple languages.