Gary Soto Accomplishments

Gary Soto was born in April of 1952 in Fresno,California. Soto is an American author and poet. Gary Soto has won many awards due to his books and poems. Soto is admired by many for being so successful as a Mexican-American poet. Gary Soto has come a long way in being recognized as one of the best poets ever to be. Gary Soto, born April 12, 1952, was raised in Fresno,California. Soto is still alive at the age of sixty-two and in good health. Gary Soto grew up in central California in a town named Fresno. Gary Soto was second out of the three children Manuel and Angie had. His family lived on a low income when he was a child, but managed to get along. Then his father died when he was only five and left his whole family devastated emotionally and economically. Growing up he had to help his family by working in the fields picking cotton or fruit. Gary finished high school at Roosevelt and went on to Fresno City College and California State University-Fresno, where he earned a BA in English.

Soto was inspired to write poetry when he began to read it. He was influenced by poets like Edward Field’s, W.S. Merwin, Charles Simic, James Wright, Pablo Neruda, and novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez to write it. Soto writes most of his poetry based on his life experience. Gary Soto writes poetry more for the youth although he has poetry that is published in the adult field. Gary Soto has written an autobiography on himself and a couple novels. Gary Anthony Soto, has won plenty of awards like The National Endowment for the Arts, American Book Awards, Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts U.S/Canada, and etc. He is nationally recognized in the adult field. Soto enjoys to sit back and just read during free time or when he isn’t writing