Marc García-Martínez, Ph.D.
SANTA MARIA — Allan Hancock College English professor Marc García-Martínez, Ph.D., has been selected as a finalist for the 2015 International Latino Books Awards. García-Martínez’s book, The Flesh and Blood Aesthetics of Alejandro Morales’ – Disease, Sex, and Figuration, is a finalist in the category for Best First Book – Nonfiction.
The annual awards celebrate books written in English, Spanish and Portuguese. They have become the nation’s largest Latino Cultural awards, honoring more than 1,900 authors and publishers over the past two decades. This year, 250 authors and publishers, who represent 19 countries, will be honored.
“I am very excited to be a finalist in this international awards competition,” said García-Martínez, who has taught composition, literary and media studies at Hancock for 15 years. “I am in some rather good company with many amazing and prolific Latino/a writers around the world. It is both humbling and exciting at the same time.”
Last June, García-Martínez’s book was published by the oldest university press in the California State University system, San Diego State University Press.
The Flesh and Blood Aesthetics of Alejandro Morales’ – Disease, Sex, and Figuration has been named a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards. The book, written by Allan Hancock College English professor Marc García-Martínez is nominated in the Best First Book – Nonfiction category. Courtesy image.
The book analyzes the work of Morales, considered by many scholars and critics as one of the nation’s foremost Chicano writers. Morales, an award-winning author, has written seven novels and three novellas, including The Brick People and The Rag Doll Plagues. He explores the novels and analyzes Morales’ metaphors, symbols, imagery and obsession with the human body.
“It is so gratifying to have my scholarly work recognized. Yet it is also valuable, for it not only affirms to my students that their professor is practicing what he preaches in the classroom, but more importantly it reminds them of the results of hard work,” he added.
García-Martínez’s book will be a part of the Award Winning Author Tour organized by Latino Literacy Now. The group will display the books at events, such as major Latino book and family conferences around the nation. He said his work is already on library book shelves around the world.
“Harvard, Brown, Cornell, UCLA, Stanford, NYU, and Duke Universities have recently acquired my book for their libraries,” said García-Martínez. “Libraries in Canada, Germany and Spain have it as well. It’s great to think that Hancock has, in a way, reached out to all these other schools through my work.”
The International Latino Book Awards ceremony will be June 27 in San Francisco. All finalists will receive either a first place, second place or honorable mention when awards are presented. Awards in all categories are determined by the total of all the judges’ scores.
Currently, García-Martínez, a second-generation Mexican American and grandchild of Revolution-era immigrants from Western and Northern Mexico, is working on an academic journal article about alternative strategies to grading college students’ essays, as well as a book that investigates representations of the Aztecs in science fiction television, literature, film and gaming.