Daniel Chacón (born 1962) is a

Chicano Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...

short story writer A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

essayist An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

, and

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

host based in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

. He chairs the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

creative writing graduate program, the country's only bilingual MFA program. He founded the Chicano Writers and Artists Association with Fresno State classmate and close friend

Andrés Montoya Andrés Montoya (May 18, 1968 – May 26, 1999) was a Chicano poet. Early life Born on May 18, 1968, Montoya was the son of noted Chicano scholar, activist, and artist Malaquias Montoya and JoAnna Kerby. His father, Malaquias Montoya, teaches a ...

in 1985.

Early life

Chacón was born and raised in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

; his father was from

. One of his brothers is writer Kenneth Robert Chacón, from whom he was estranged for many years. He earned a BA in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

from

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

and an MFA in Fiction Writing from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

. While at CSU, he wrote for the campus newspaper ''La Voz de Aztlan''.

Career

Chacón joined the MFA program at

as an assistant professor in Creative Writing in 2000 and has been the department chair since 2017. Since 2011, he has co-hosted the KTEP show ''Words on a Wire''; his original co-host was

Benjamin Alire Sáenz Benjamin Alire Sáenz (born August 16, 1954) is an American poet, novelist, and writer of children's books. Early life and education Sáenz was raised near Las Cruces, New Mexico. He earned a BA in Humanities and Philosophy from St. Thomas Semin ...

and is now

Tim Z. Hernandez Tim Z. Hernandez is an American writer, performer, and multi-disciplinary artist. His first poetry collection, ''Skin Tax '' (2004), received the 2006 American Book Award, and his debut novel, ''Breathing, in Dust'' (2010), was awarded the 2010 ...

. Guests include

Alison Hawthorne Deming Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946 Hartford, Connecticut) is an American poet, essayist and teacher, former Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in Environment and Social Justice and currently Regents Professor Emerita in Creative Writing at the University of A ...

, Francisco Aragón, and Garrett Hongo. He serves at the assistant director of the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation and was appointed chair for the International Association of Burn Camps' Board of Directors in 2018, and is part of the Southwest Festival of the Written Word's advisory board. He has also edited several books, including ''A Jury of Trees'' (a posthumous collection of poetry by

) (2017), ''The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: The Selected Work of José Antonio Burciaga'' (2008; with

Mimi Reisel Gladstein Mimi Reisel Gladstein (born 1936) is a professor of English and Theatre Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her specialties include authors such as Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck, as well as women's studies, theatre arts and 18th-century Br ...

) and ''Colón-ization: The Posthumous Poems of Andrés Montoya'' (2017). His writing has also appeared in several anthologies: ''Caliente: The Best Erotic Writing in Latin American Fiction'' (2002), ''Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge'' (2006), and ''Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the West Side of the Missouri'' (2009), among others. Journals that have published his work include ''

ZYZZYVA ''Zyzzyva'' is a triannual magazine of writers and artists. It places an emphasis on showcasing emerging voices and never before published writers in addition to the already established. Based in San Francisco, it began publishing in 1985. ''ZYZ ...

, Americas Review,

Bilingual Review The ''Bilingual Review/La revista bilingüe'' is a triannual peer-reviewed open access academic and literary journal covering research on Spanish-English bilingualism, bilingual education, and Hispanic American literature. It was previously publ ...

Colorado Review The ''Colorado Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine published by the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University. History and profile The magazine was established in 1956. It presents the annual Nelligan Prize for Short Fict ...

New England Review The ''New England Review'' is an American quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, ...

'', and ''

Callaloo Callaloo ( , ; many spelling variants, such as kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, calaloux, or callalloo) is a plant used in popular dishes in many Caribbean countries, while for other Caribbean countries, a stew made with the plant is called call ...

''. He also dabbles in playwrighting, standup, and poetry.

Personal life

Chacón is married and has a step-daughter. His first child was born in 2020. He began speaking Spanish in 1996.

Awards and honors

Chacón has received a grant from the

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

Foundation and was inducted into the

Texas Institute of Letters The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit Honor Society founded by William Harvey Vann in 1936 to celebrate Texas literature and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. The TIL’s elected membership consists of the state’s most resp ...

in 2019.

Selected works

References

External links

UTEP faculty page

''Words on a Wire'' page

Online video of show
''UTEP Prospector'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chacon, Daniel 21st-century American novelists American radio personalities California State University, Fresno alumni Hispanic and Latino American novelists Hispanic and Latino American writers Living people University of Oregon alumni University of Texas at El Paso faculty 1962 births 21st-century American poets American male novelists American male poets American Book Award winners 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Texas American writers of Mexican descent American academics of Mexican descent Chicano Writers from Fresno, California Writers from El Paso, Texas