Manuel Muñoz

Manuel Muñoz is an American novelist, short story writer, and professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.

Biography

Muñoz was born in Dinuba, California, a small city in the Central Valley of California, to a family of Mexican-American farm workers. Despite his family's economic woes – and his occasionally having to lend a hand during the grape harvest – Muñoz performed very well in school. He graduated from Harvard University in 1994, and went on to earn a Masters in Fine Arts from Cornell University in 1998 He met Helena María Viramontes, who has had an important influence on his work, at Cornell. Muñoz considers her to be "his literary godmother."

Writing career

Muñoz's early writing appeared in various publications, notably Rush Hour, Swink, Epoch, Glimmer Train, Edinburgh Review, and Boston Review. His first collection of short stories, Zigzagger, was published in 2003. Most of the stories in this first tome are set in the rural towns of the Central Valley of California, which resemble his hometown of Dinuba. Muñoz has noted that the Central Valley has functioned as "reservoir of creativity" for him. Helena Maria Viramontes wrote that "Zigzagger is not merely a contribution to Latina/o letters, but a major breakthrough."

In his first novel, What You See in the Dark (2011), Muñoz moves away from the familiar rural settings of the Central Valley to the set of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in 1950s Bakersfield, California. Muñoz uses the second person singular to draw his reader into the novel. A starred review in Publishers Weekly called What You See in the Dark a "stellar first novel. [...] The lyrical prose and sensitive portrayal of the crime's ripple effect in the small community elevate this far beyond the typical noir." 2008 Whiting Award 2015 PEN/O. Henry Award for his story "The Happiest Girl in the USA." 2017 PEN/O. Henry Award for his story "The Reason Is Because" The Best American Short Stories 2019 includes "Anyone Can Do It" New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award

Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize

Works