Victor L. Martinez (February 21, 1954 – February 18, 2011) was an American poet and author. He won the 1996 U.S.

National Book Award for Young People's Literature The National Book Award for Young People's Literature is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation (NBF) to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".< ...

for his first novel, ''Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida''."National Book Awards – 1996"

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
(With acceptance speech by Martinez.)

Life

Martinez was the born in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

to Mexican migrant agricultural field workers of the Central Valley. He was one of twelve children. Victor attended California State University at Fresno and later obtained a graduate degree from Stanford University on a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship. He began writing as a poet and published a book of poetry, "Caring for a House," in 1992. He was a member of Humanizarte, a collective of Chicano poets, and later of the Chicano/Latino Writers' Center of San Francisco. He supported himself with jobs as a welder, truck driver, firefighter, teacher, and office clerk. In February 2011, he died of lung cancer at age 56 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

''Parrot in the Oven''

Martinez and his first novel ''Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida'' won a

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in 1996. ''Parrot'' was a semi-autobiographical account of a 14-year-old Mexican American boy growing up "in a world of gangs, violence and poverty" in the projects of

Central Valley (California) The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast of the state. It cove ...

. Martinez wrote the novel for adults but an editor suggested promoting it in the

young adult fiction Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

market. It has been translated into languages including Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and German, and widely acclaimed by young people around the world.

Works

Poetry

*''Caring for a House'', Chusma House Publications, 1992,

Novels

*''El loro en el horno: mi vida'', Noguer y Caralt, 2003, *

Anthologies

* *

References

External links

* 1954 births 2011 deaths American children's writers 20th-century American poets American writers of Mexican descent National Book Award for Young People's Literature winners Writers from Fresno, California California State University, Fresno alumni Stanford University alumni Deaths from lung cancer in California 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets American male novelists American male poets 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers {{US-novelist-1950s-stub