Tag Archives: Sergio Troncoso

The Texas Institute of Letters has announced 13 recipients of their Annual TIL Literary Awards, and El Paso’s own Sergio Troncoso is one of the honorees.

Troncoso was awarded the 2020 Kay Cattarulla Award and $1,000 for the Best Short Story from the Texas Institute of Letters.

The story “Rosary on the Border” first appeared in his new collection of linked short stories on immigration, A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son, published by El Paso’s Cinco Puntos Press in 2019.

Along with Troncoso, the following authors were named as award-winners: Oscar Cásares, Holly George- Warren, Ron Tyler, Bryan Washington, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lupe Mendez, Rubén Degollado, Rebecca Balcárcel, José M. Hernández, Skip Hollandsworth, and Cyrus Cassells.

The El Paso Public Library once again hosts the annual Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 29 at Washington Park located at 4201 East Paisano.

As part of the celebration, smaller events will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Armijo, Esperanza Moreno and Sergio Troncoso branches.

More than 10,000 books will be given away during the celebration of children, literacy and health that began in 1997 as a partnership between the El Paso Public Library and the Parks and Recreation Department and other community organizations. Aside from free books, there will be live entertainment, food booths, health screenings, arts and crafts and more.

Sun Metro will provide free bus rides for children up to 18 years of age all day.

The event is free and children are encouraged to bring backpacks or reusable bags to carry books and other goodies. Free parking is available at the El Paso County Coliseum and a free shuttle will take guests to and from the park.

The purpose of the celebration is to encourage children and parents to read more and become more physically active. Studies show that reading is one of the most important activities in which a child can take part and is one of the primary variables in the academic and career success of young people.

The annual event is one of El Paso’s longest running free festivals and one of the largest literacy events in the Southwest. For more information, visit the El Paso Public Library.

When Sergio Troncoso was a young boy growing up in Ysleta, he would ride his bike all the way to Downtown El Paso, on weekends, to visit his grandmother in Segundo Barrio and to visit the Main branch of the El Paso Public Library.  He would then check his books out for the week and head back to Ysleta with his bike in the trunk of his father’s car.

Now, his dedication to literature and writing will earn him the honor of becoming the namesake of the public library branch in Ysleta where he was raised. The Sergio Troncoso Branch of the El Paso Public Library is located at 9321 Alameda Avenue.

“We know that having Mr. Troncoso’s name on one of our libraries will inspire young people to seek higher levels of learning in hopes that one day, they too will be able to give back to their community, as Mr. Troncoso has done, through hard work, dedication and a never-ending faith in education,” said Libraries Director Dionne Mack.

Today, Troncoso is a writer of essays, short stories, and novels, and the author of five books. Among the numerous awards he has won are the Premio Aztlan Literary Prize, Southwest Book Award, Bronze Award for Essays from ForeWord Reviews, International Latino Book Award, and Bronze Award for Multicultural Fiction from ForeWord Reviews.

Troncoso is a resident faculty member of the Yale Writers’ Conference in New Haven, Conn., and an instructor at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. He has been a judge for the Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction from the Texas Institute of Letters.

He has also served on the Literature panel of the New York State Council on the Arts, and in 2014 he was co-chair of that panel. In 2015, he was elected to the board of councilors for the Texas Institute of Letters. He will serve as a judge for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Troncoso was inducted into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Alumni Hall of Fame and the Texas Institute of Letters. He also received the Literary Legacy Award from the El Paso Community College.

He graduated from Harvard College, and studied international relations and philosophy at Yale University. He won a Fulbright scholarship to Mexico, where he studied economics, politics, and literature.

El Paso City Council voted unanimously to rename the Ysleta branch public library in honor of the author.

The Sergio Troncoso Branch of the El Paso Public Library, at 9321 Alameda Avenue, will be officially dedicated at 2 p.m. on Friday, October 2, 2015. Troncoso will be present to help dedicate the building at the free community celebration which will include mariachis, folkloricos, and free refreshments.

Author: City of El Paso