Gary Soto was born on April 12, 1952, in Fresno, California. His parents were Mexican-American; his grandparents had immigrated from Mexico during the Depression and found jobs on Fresno farms.
When Gary was five, his father died in a factory accident. His mother was left to raise three children on her own. The family did not have much money, and Gary was raised with a tough work ethic. To help support the family he mowed lawns, picked grapes, washed cars, and painted numbers on curbs.
Gary grew up wanting to be a priest, a paleontologist, or a hobo. He certainly never planned to become a writer. The family was more or less illiterate, and Gary was never encouraged to read - there were too many other things to take care of.
Gary went to California State University at Fresno to study geology. One day he came across a book of poetry in the college library, read it, liked it, and began to write his own poems. He took a poetry class, and decided to become a writer. He was twenty. He earned a BA in English, a Master's in creative writing, and has been writing ever since.
After receiving his master's, Gary became writer-in-residence at San Diego State, and a lecturer in Chicano studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1977, he became an associate professor in both the Chicano studies and English departments at Berkeley, and he has been a senior lecturer there since 1992.
Since 1993, Gary has considered himself a full-time writer. He has written poetry and prose for children and adults, and most of it reflects his Mexican-American heritage. He writes in the mornings, in his garage.
Gary enjoys karate, basketball, and Aztec dancing. He serves as a volunteer English teacher at his church. He has a wife, Carolyn, a daughter, Mariko, and two cats, Corky and Sharkie. They all live in Berkeley.
Books:
Baseball in April and Other Stories
Big Bushy Mustache
Boys At Work
Buried Onions
Canto Familiar
The Cat's Meow
Chato and the Party Animals
Chato's Kitchen
Coming of Age in America: A Multicultural Anthology
Condor Dreams & Other Fictions
The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy: Recollections and Short Essays
The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement
A Fire in My Hands
Folk Wisdom of Mexico: Proverbios Y Dichos Mexicanos
Gary Soto: New and Selected Poems
Jesse
Junior College: Poems
Living Up the Street: Narrative Recollections
Local News
My Little Car
A Natural Man
Neighborhood Odes
Nerdlandia
Nickel and Dime
Novio Boy
Off and Running
The Old Man and His Door
Pacific Crossing
Petty Crimes
Poetry Lover
The Pool Party
The Skirt
Snapshots from the Wedding
A Summer Life
Taking Sides
Too Many Tamales
Who Will Know Us?: New Poems
thanks to:
http://www.unomaha.edu/~unochlit/soto.html
http://teacher.scholastic.com/authorsandbooks/authors/soto/bio.htm
http://www.penguinputnam.com/catalog/yreader/authors/199_biography.html
www.amazon.com