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Daniel Chacón

ダニエル・チャコン

Danieru Chakon

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1962-01-01 （Fresno, California）
Nationality
American
Languages
English
Residence History
Fresno, California → El Paso, Texas

Career

Occupations
Writer, Educator, Professor, Editor, Radio host
Active Years
1996-2024
Affiliations
University of Texas at El Paso
Memberships
Texas Institute of Letters
Influenced By
Andrés Montoya

Education

California State University, Fresno
Political Science
Degree: BA
Country: United States
University of Oregon
Fiction Writing
Degree: MFA
Country: United States

Awards

American Book Awards
2009
Work: The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga
Organization: Before Columbus Foundation
Result: Winner
Hudson Prize
2007
Work: Unending Rooms
Organization: Black Lawrence Press
Result: Winner
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
2014
Work: Hotel Juárez
Organization: PEN Oakland
Result: Winner
Peter and Jean de Maine Award for an Emerging Writer in Fiction
2000
Work: Godoy Lives
Organization: Clackamas Literary Review
Result: Winner
Tejas Award for Best Book of Fiction
2014
Work: Hotel Juárez
Organization: National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Result: Winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Chicano Chicanery

1996 Chicano literature 144 pages

From Mexico City to Aztlan Oregon, in bittersweet comic fables and through tales of frightening realism, Daniel Chacon captures the shrewd, furtive, and sometimes torturous ways by which Mexican-Americans manage to survive in intimidating territory.

Mexican-American lifeIdentity

and the shadows took him

2005 Fiction 352 pages

Joey Molina had never been in a fight. The very thought of violence upset him. He only wanted to be an actor, and so he read plays and learned new words with his mother. When he's cast in the lead role in the school play, he's eager to go home and tell his family about it, but his parents have an announcement of their own.

FamilyViolenceDreams

Unending Rooms

2008 Short stories 235 pages

The winner of the Hudson Prize, this collection of stories, mainly set in the Southwest, digs deep into the lives of its characters. Daniel Chacon's writing is very lucid and dips into Carveresque plain talk at times, but he isn't afraid to use pretty descriptions as well.

Southwest lifeHuman relationships

Hotel Juárez

2012 Short and flash fiction 197 pages

In this collection of short and flash fiction, Daniel Chacón examines peoples' interactions with each other, the impact of identity and the importance of literature, art and music.

IdentityBorderArt

The Cholo Tree

2017 Young adult novel 248 pages

Fourteen-year-old Victor has just been released from the hospital after barely surviving being shot. His mother accuses him of being a cholo, something he denies, but she's not the only adult that thinks he's a gangbanger.

Gang cultureStereotypesYouth

Kafka in a Skirt: Stories from the Wall

2019 Short stories 168 pages

These stories explore the concept of a wall that reaches beyond our immediate thoughts of a towering physical structure... partition along the U.S.-Mexico border... intangible walls that divide communities and individuals.

WallBorderMulticulturalism

Translations by Author

  • The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: The Selected Work of José Antonio Burciaga (editor)
  • A Jury of Trees (Andrés Montoya poetry, editor)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Lucid and plain talk styleBittersweet comic fables, realistic tales
Recurring Motifs
Chicano identityBorders and wallsMexican-American survival

Legacy

Significant contributor to Chicano literature, chairs bilingual MFA program at UTEP, radio host.

Trivia

  • Founded Chicano Writers and Artists Association with Andrés Montoya in 1985.
  • Began speaking Spanish in 1996.