New Testaments - Stories

The lives of working class Mexican America, where everyday stories offer a portal to myth and fable.

This collection of eleven stories is the newest installment of an ongoing, multi-volume literary documentary project, penned by one of the contemporary legends of Chicanx literature.

Dagoberto Gilb's cast of characters includes a young family whose exposure to a mysterious cloud of gas alters their lives forever; a high school dropout whose choice to learn the ways of the world from the adults at work in his uncle’s industrial laundry leads him into a dangerous dalliance;  a former high-rise union carpenter who agrees to meet up with an eager old flame; an aging Chicano, living alone, whose children watch over him for signs of decline; and more.

These are stories about working class people who come and go mostly unnoticed or ignored, whose lives are not fodder for literary tropes or cliches. They are neither heroes nor villains, just regular people with their flaws and merits, facing the challenges and questions posed by everyday life. Gilb writes in a distinctive, appealing voice, welcoming the reader in with an easy sense of familiarity, and the effect is spare on the surface, but profound. Deftly capturing the nuances of interpersonal relationships in a simple word or gesture, he peels back the surface of seemingly unremarkable encounters to reveal layers of myth and uncanny surrealism, propelled by the momentum of new, changing times.

Über den Autor / die Autorin

Dagoberto Gilb is the author of eleven books, including The Magic of Blood, The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña, Woodcuts of Women, Gritos, The Flowers, and Before the End, After the Beginning. In October 2024, two new books by Gilb will be published: A Passing West: Essays from the Borderland with the University of New Mexico Press, and New Testaments: Stories, with City Lights Publishers. Among his honors are the PEN/Hemingway Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Whiting Writers Award. His work has been a finalist for the National Book Critics’ Circle and PEN/Faulkner Awards and has been honored several times in Texas as a proud part of its literary tradition. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Best American Essays, O'Henry Prize Stories, and much of it widely reprinted in textbooks. He is the founder of Huizache, a groundbreaking literary magazine that features Latino writing. Born and raised in Los Angeles by his Mexican mother, he now lives in both Austin and Mexico City.

Zusammenfassung

The lives of working class Mexican America, where everyday stories offer a portal to myth and fable.
"No one writes like Dagoberto Gilb! I loved these energetic, soulful, and hilarious stories that by the end had me wondering if I'd encountered the sublime on the page."—Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light
This collection of eleven stories is the newest installment of an ongoing, multi-volume literary documentary project, penned by one of the contemporary legends of Chicanx literature. Dagoberto Gilb's cast of characters includes a young family whose exposure to a mysterious cloud of gas alters their lives forever; a high school dropout whose choice to learn the ways of the world from the adults at work in his uncle’s industrial laundry leads him into a dangerous dalliance;  a former high-rise union carpenter who agrees to meet up with an eager old flame; an aging Chicano, living alone, whose children watch over him for signs of decline; and more.
These are stories about working class people who come and go mostly unnoticed or ignored, whose lives are not fodder for literary tropes or cliches. They are neither heroes nor villains, just regular people with their flaws and merits, facing the challenges and questions posed by everyday life. Gilb writes in a distinctive, appealing voice, welcoming the reader in with an easy sense of familiarity, and the effect is spare on the surface, but profound. Deftly capturing the nuances of interpersonal relationships in a simple word or gesture, he peels back the surface of seemingly unremarkable encounters to reveal layers of myth and uncanny surrealism, propelled by the momentum of new, changing times.

Vorwort

• Co-op available
• Advance print and PDF galleys available and on Edelweiss
• National print, web and radio campaign
• Excerpt pursuit 
• Tour: Southwest and California, other info TK. 
• Social media campaign: Author is active on Instagram & Twitter. Promotion on City Lights Twitter (131.9 k followers), Instagram (61.2 k followers) & Facebook (61 K followers). 
• Pursuing nominations for IndieNext. 
• Endorsements: TK.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Dagoberto Gilb
• Verlag: City Light Books
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erscheint: 01.10.2024, verspätet
• EAN: 9780872869318
• ISBN: 978-0-87286-931-8
• Seiten: 160
• Themen: Belletristik > Erzählende Literatur; FICTION / Short Stories (single author), FICTION / Hispanic & Latino / Family Life, FICTION / Hispanic & Latino / Urban & Street Lit