无忧视频

Plascencia Published in McSweeney’s 61

无忧视频 creative writing professor Salvador Plascencia joins comedians, cultural critics and writers in the latest issue of the award-winning quarterly 惭肠厂飞别别苍别测鈥檚.

Cover of McSweeney’s 61, a leather-bound volume with foil-stamped art by Sophy Hollington.

features Plascencia鈥檚 story 鈥淓l Paraiso鈥� about 鈥渞ural Mexican towns, soccer in the San Gabriel Valley and the sadness of the diaspora.鈥� Plascencia, an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts, has had three previous stories in McSweeney鈥檚 Quarterly Concern: 鈥淭he Enduring Nature of the Bromidic鈥� (#32), 鈥淩eturned鈥� (#22) and 鈥淭he People of Paper鈥� (#12).

The latter story, published in book form by McSweeney鈥檚 in 2005, became a cult favorite. The People of Paper was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and Financial Times. The book has been translated into a dozen languages and been widely anthologized and adopted in Chicanx, postmodern, creative writing and design courses throughout the country. In addition to 惭肠厂飞别别苍别测鈥檚, Plascencia鈥檚 writing has appeared in Lucky Peach, Tin House and Los Angeles Times.

鈥淲hen it comes down to it, all of my work is about the political, physical and psychic line between Mexico and the United States,鈥� says Plascencia. 鈥淢y fiction explores how the border presses and shapes the lives of people on both sides of that fence. For 鈥楨l Paraiso,鈥� I was interested in how soccer and pueblo clubs cross over to El Norte and reconstitute the relationships and rivalries of their little farm towns. The piece is also about a feckless graduate student who spends all his time playing soccer instead of reading Le Morte d鈥橝rthur, which, if you鈥檙e wondering, is not at all autobiographical.鈥�

Plascencia鈥檚 literature courses at Harvey Mudd include fabulist and weird texts, and he leads fiction workshops. 鈥淚 have the tremendous privilege of reading the fresh creations of Mudders and students from the other colleges,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n my Forking Paths workshop, a class exploring the interplay between prose and visual elements, students make fiction they stain with Rorschach inkblots, twist into labyrinthine layouts, and that lure you into playing unexpected and frightening games of M.A.S.H. and Mad Libs. Sometimes, it鈥檚 a very thin line between my excitement as a teacher and reader and my envy as an artist.鈥�

He adds that a student in one of his workshops, Claire Boyle PZ 鈥�15, is now an editor at 惭肠厂飞别别苍别测鈥檚. 鈥淚 had the humiliating and very proud experience of having one of my former undergrads correct my 鈥榳hos鈥� into 鈥榳homs鈥� and tell me that some of my paragraphs were not making any sense.鈥�

Plascencia is the recipient of the Bard Fiction Prize and a Moseley Fellowship. In 2001, he was awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, becoming its first fellow in fiction.