Award-winning Author Sergio Troncoso To Speak at HCC

BRIDGEPORT – Author Sergio Troncoso, whose books have won numerous awards, will speak at Housatonic Community College Thursday, April 4.

Troncoso, the son of Mexican immigrants who grew up on the outskirts of El Paso, draws on this experience for many of his works.  From This Wicked Patch of Dust, a story about the Martinez family who begins life in a border shantytown and struggles to stay together despite cultural clashes, different religions, and politics after 9/11, was named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2012, and won the Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association. It also won the Silver medal for fiction in the Nautilus Book Awards and was designated a “Notable Book” by Southwest Books of the Year.

Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, a collection of personal essays about fatherhood, interfaith marriage, breast cancer and families, poverty, literacy, and education, won the Bronze Award for Essays in ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Awards while The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, won the Premio Aztlan award and the Southwest Book Award. Publisher’s Weekly described the stories as “richly satisfying," while Booklist said the collection is "enthusiastically recommended."

Troncoso’s The Nature of Truth: A Novel, a story about a Yale research student who discovers that his boss, a renowned professor, hides a Nazi past, has also won plaudits from critics. "Troncoso excels as a narrator, a storyteller, and a creator of vivid characters and images," said Southwest Book Views, while the Chicago Tribune described the book as an "impressively lucid first thriller."

Troncoso's stories have been featured in many anthologies, including Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing (University of Arizona Press), Latino Boom: An Anthology of U. S. Latino Literature (Pearson/Longman Publishing), Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas-Mexican Literature (University of New Mexico Press), and New World: Young Latino Writers (Dell Publishing). His work has also appeared in Newsday, The El Paso Times, Other Voices, Pembroke Magazine, Encyclopedia Latina, and many other newspapers and literary magazines.

Troncoso graduated from Harvard College, and studied international relations and philosophy at Yale University. He won a Fulbright scholarship to Mexico and was inducted into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's Alumni Hall of Fame.

The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 11 a.m. in Room A101 in Lafayette Hall.  For more information, contact Peter Everett at 203-332-5074.

HCC is located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in downtown Bridgeport, less than 150 yards off I-95 (Exit 27) and Rte. 8 (Exit 1), a block from the Arena at Harbor Yard.  Free parking is available in the HCC garage.