Gary Soto was born April 12, 1952 in Fresno, California, where he was raised and went to the public schools. From ages 7 to 18, he seemed to live at Romain playground, an education in itself. He has been married to his wife Carolyn for thirty-two years, and they have a daughter, Mariko, who works as a veterinarian.

When did you first start writing? I was twenty and a student at Fresno City College, when I discovered an array of contemporary American poets. My favorite then was Edward Field. Soon I discovered W.S. Merwin, Charles Simic, James Wright and the master of them all, Pablo Neruda. Then I discovered the novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I was hooked. I wanted to make writing my life.

Do you need to read in order to write? Claro qué si! Poets should fill themselves with the works of poetry and other writers. My advice for young poets is to read what’s available in the contemporary landscape. Later they can begin to study the grand masters such as Flaubert and Turgenev.

Were you a “good student” in school? Claro qué no! I graduated from Roosevelt High School with something like a 1.6 GPA. But while in high school I discovered the works of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Jules Vernes, Robert Frost and Thorton Wilder. In short, I was already thinking like a poet, already filling myself with literature.

What was your major in college? I went to Fresno State College, where I graduated in 1974. My major was English.

Do you speak Spanish? Sometimes.

What do you like to do? Read. It appears these days I don’t have much of a life because my nose is often stuck a book. But I discovered that reading builds a life inside the mind. I enjoy biographies and novels and reading in Spanish. Also, I like theater, tennis, basketball, traveling (especially London) and working in the garden…sometimes.

Who are your favorite writers? Thomas Berger, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Carson McCullers, Richard Russo, John Galsworthy, Walter Mosley, James Crumley, Richard Ford, Christopher Durang, David Mamet, H.E. Bates, A.R. Gurney, Nicky Silvers, Martín Espada, Robertson Davies, Elmore Leonard, and Bill Shakespeare. My favorite Faulkner novel is The Light in August. My favorite poem is Christopher Smart’s “My Cat Jeffery.”

Have any of your stories been made into movies? Yes, I had a short story of mine called “The No Guitar Blues” made into a short film. Buried Onions, my young-adult novel, was for the past eight years scheduled for film production, but the project is now dead. Qué lastima! I always wanted to go to Hollywood and sit by a pool drinking ice tea at some rich producer’s Beverly Hills home. Now I’ll drink ice tea in my yard and run a garden hose on the ground to form a pool.

You are the Young People Ambassador for California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). What does this title mean? It means that when I make presentations I devote some time to telling my audience about the legacy of these two organizations. Under the Directorship of José Padilla, CRLA helps the rural poor when they need legal representation. The UFW is a union of farm workers started by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the mid-1960s.

When writing, do you revise? Yes, all writers revise and almost all writers have friends who look at his or her work. My first reader is my wife; poor thing, I bother her almost daily as I beg, “Carolyn, could you please look at this masterpiece?” Of course it’s not a masterpiece, but a way of getting her attention.

What’s the favorite book you have written? Jesse, a novel set in the early 1970s and about two brothers. I also enjoyed writing my novel Poetry Lover.

What is your favorite novel written by someone else? It might be The Feud by Thomas Berger or it might be Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. My all time favorite—it’s a tough call—is Flaubert’s Madame Bovary.

Do you have a favorite movie? No, I don’t. But I can tell you my wife’s favorite movie—“Babe.”

Do all your writing projects get published? No, I have written several picture books that were just awful, and I have written a middle grade novel that was too violent for its own good. I put them away, and sometimes I burn the poetry I feel is no good.

Do you teach? No

We hear that you have a library named in your honor? Yes, this is at Winchell Elementary School in Fresno.

What is your highest honor? In Kennesaw, Georgia, there is one wonderful teacher who named her dog after me. She apparently loves my work. The dog is named Soto. Apparently he is one goofy dog.

Do you often go back to Fresno? Almost monthly. I have friends and family there, and I like to kick around its streets. My most recent novel, The Afterlife, is set in Fresno. I can’t get Fresno out of my system. Qué viva Fresno!

Do you see your friends from childhood? No, I’m sorry that I don’t. Friends, as you may know, sometimes disappear. Mine did.

What are you working on now? Poetry for adults. I just completed a book of poems called Human Nature; it was a nine months of hard work. Still, it may be a year or so before it comes out as publishing is very slow. But due this spring is a short story collection of mine called Facts of Life. There are both funny and sad stories in this collection. Look for it in May 2008. In 2009 I’ll have a collection of love poems for middle grade students. Since it’s a year away, I won’t say too much about it except that I know in my heart that girls will be far more interested in it than boys. Let me guess. Is it because girls are more romantic? This is possibly true.

Are you going to write more plays? No, I’m afraid not. I recently finished a one-act play called Everything’s Broken, and my wife, my good friend José Novoa, my literary agent—the whole world, it seemed—said that it stinks. Of course, they used kinder words, but I got their meaning.

What kind of car do you drive? A 2007 Saturn. I like it because the power windows work!

What was the worse car you ever had? A 1961 Rambler. However, it was a gas saver because I spent most of my time pushing it!