Hector Tobar

Author of Our Migrant Souls (MCD/FSG) and 5 more books, including The Tattooed Soldier, Deep Down Dark. Guggenheim Fellow. UC Irvine prof. Dad. IG: tobarhector

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

I've been writing books long enough to remember a time when there were only a handful of Latinx reviewers. That's changed. Dramatically. Huge thanks to @_franciscocantu for his thoughtful, beautiful review of my book Our Migrant Souls in @nytimesbooks.

[New York Times Books @nytimesbooks]

“Tobar is unpreoccupied with settling on a fixed definition of ‘Latino.’ Instead, like a sculptor chipping away at a mass of stone, he is interested in revealing a human shape within it.” Read our review of Héctor Tobar’s “Our Migrant Souls.” https://t.co/kMF4TQwIPN

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

My prologue for the reissue of the Nobel laureate Miguel Angel Asturias's novel Men of Maize is in The Paris Review online. https://t.co/LUn50PkOd9

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

My book Our Migrant Souls is the winner of this year's Zócalo Book Prize. Please join myself and the great Natalia Molina as we talk about the book on Thurs., Jun 13 at 7. pm., in downtown L.A., at the old Herald Examiner building.

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

I can't wait until the movie awards season is over. Because then, and only then, will I stop getting messages in my in-box telling me "American Fiction is an instant modern classic." Attn: Orion Pictures: a dozen emails (yeah, I counted them) is enough.

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

Craft+persistence=a writer. Craft+persistence+humility=a good writer.

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

Truly moved to see my book Our Migrant Souls on the New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2023. Really a wonderful honor. And to see it on the best-of-the-year lists at Time, Amazon, and NPR. Many thanks to the editors and reviewers at those places. https://t.co/leyukgWGRM

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

Our Migrant Souls won the Kirkus Prize for nonfiction this week. And I was deeply honored to share a stage with my fellow honorees: The legendary novelist James McBride (who won in fiction) and Ariel Aberg-Riger (for her work in YA literature).

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

My wonderful Guatemalan mother, so smart and funny. Like me, she never took a class in literary criticism. But throughout my life she's read my work and told me: "Mijito, siempre le das ese toquecito humano." Yeah, mom: little human touches. That's what it's all about. Gracias.

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

New Yorkers! Please join me next week, Thursday Oct. 12 @ 7 p.m., at the New York Public Library's iconic Schwarzman Building, where I will be discussing my book Our Migrant Souls with the wonderful novelist Alejandro Varela. https://t.co/f7wjlzemcb

[NY Public Library @nypl]

On 10/12, join us for #LIVEfromNYPL with the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer @TobarWriter & Alejandro Varela as they discuss the complicated story of the historical and social forces that define Latino identity. Register now to join in person or online: https://t.co/zrIwRStXy4

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

@TheAuthorGuy You can write whatever you want. I don't think it's dishonest. What I'm saying is that the idea of "whiteness" is based on forgetting and erasures. Erasing people "of color," erasing the pain of a white "ethnic" past, erasing the realities of social class.

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

Today, in honor of Labor Day, I would like to tell you what I learned about class struggle--and U.S. literature--after reading 150 novels and story collections, as a member of the 2023 Pulitzer jury for fiction. 1/8

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

@leahkorican Yes! See the chapters called "Race" in my book "Our Migrant Souls."

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

I think that we Latino writers, especially, should peer into the questions of social class at the root of our “identity.” We should write about our relationship to "white" ideas of success and stauts. A lot of our bravest writers do this. Onward and upward with the arts! 8/8

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

The most infuriating thing was to read works of historical fiction (by some of our most celebrated writers) that were set in times and places where Latino people played a central role in the real-life story—and to see Latino people erased from the narrative. 7/8

[Hector Tobar @TobarWriter]

@ievaju Wine, or a gift basket. And a flourish of adjectives that convey infinite gratitude.