Daniel Chacón is a Chicano short story writer, novelist, essayist,

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, 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, orga ...

, professor, and radio host based in El Paso, Texas. He chairs the University of Texas, El Paso's 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 in 1985.

Early life

Chacón was born and raised in Fresno, California; his father was from El Paso, Texas. One of his brothers is writer Kenneth Robert Chacón, from whom he was estranged for many years. He earned a BA in Political Science from California State University, Fresno and an MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Oregon. While at CSU, he wrote for the campus newspaper ''La Voz de Aztan''.

Career

Chacón joined the MFA program at University of Texas El Paso 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 Semi ...

and is now

Tim Z. Hernandez Tim Z. Hernandez is an American writer, poet, and performer. His first poetry collection, ''Skin Tax '' (Heyday, 2004), received the 2006 American Book Award, and his debut novel, ''Breathing, in Dust'' (Texas Tech University Press, 2010), was aw ...

. 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 ...

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, and

Garrett Hongo Garrett Kaoru Hongo (born May 30, 1951) is a Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American academic and poet. His work draws on Japanese American history and his own experiences.Arakawa, Suzanne K. (2005). "Hongo, Garrett (Kaoru)", in He was a ...

. 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 Andrés Montoya) (2017), ''The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: The Selected Work of

José Antonio Burciaga José Antonio "Tony" Burciaga (1940 – October 7, 1996) was an American Chicano artist, poet, and writer who explored issues of Chicano identity and American society. Early career In 1960 Burciaga joined the United States Air Force. After sp ...

'' (2008; with Mimi Reisel Gladstein) 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, 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 pu ...

, Colorado Review,

New England Review The ''New England Review'' is an American quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. It was established in 1978 by Sydney Lea Sydney Lea (born December 22, 1942) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, editor, and professor ...

'', and '' Callaloo''. 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 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 Writers from California 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 People from Fresno, California Writers from El Paso, Texas