麻豆影院

Everything he鈥檚 done,听from serving as a Marine to working at the former Joder Arabian Horse Ranch in 麻豆影院,听has fed his career, says Christopher David Rosales

Christopher David Rosales hadn鈥檛 yet seen 25 years of life when he enrolled in the 麻豆影院鈥檚 Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing in 2007. But he鈥檇 already accumulated more life experience than many people twice or even three times his age.

He grew up in Paramount, California, a largely Latino city in the South Central area of Los Angeles, where his family had lived for generations.听

At 3 a.m. on the day following his graduation from high school, Rosales boarded a bus for boot camp with the U.S. Marine Corps, graduating just 10 days before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.听

He had performed his own songs at L.A.鈥檚 famous Whisky a Go Go club on Sunset Boulevard, following in the footsteps of such legendary acts as The Doors, Led Zeppelin and Guns N鈥� Roses.听

He鈥檇 worked in wildfire prevention in northern Arizona.

鈥淪on, you are going to get all the life experience life can hand you, all the experience you need,鈥� Rosales (MFAEngl鈥�10) recalls his undergraduate mentor, Rafael Zapeda, at California State University, Long Beach, telling him, 鈥淚f you are going to be a writer, that鈥檚 your work, so write.鈥�

More than a decade on, Rosales has found success in both writing and academia, and recently published his new book听鈥淲ord is Bone.鈥� His resume now includes three consecutive Thompson Writing Awards from the Center of the American West; three published novels; a PhD in creative writing from the University of Denver; a stint as the Writing Fellow at the National Archives at Philadelphia; and a position on the writing faculty at 麻豆影院鈥檚 Naropa University.

Everything he鈥檚 done鈥攆rom serving as a Marine to working at the former Joder Arabian Horse Ranch in 麻豆影院鈥攈as fed his career, Rosales says.

鈥淚鈥檓 still part musician, and when I talk to students I sometimes revert back to a musical analogy,鈥� says Rosales, 36. 鈥淚 tell them to learn all the riffs you can, learn jazz, learn everything. Break the rules, get out of the box, and then come back to the things you love.鈥�

His own literary roots go back to childhood, when, his father would retell鈥攙erbatim, from memory鈥攕tories from the Amber novels of the late science-fiction and fantasy writer Roger Zelazny. He loved reading so much as a boy that his parents had to physically drag him out from beneath the covers, where he was reading with a flashlight, to go to school in the morning. He wrote his first novel, a fantasy, in fourth grade.

鈥淚 disappeared into these other worlds,鈥� he says.听

He published his first short story in 2007, following it up with dozens more stories, essays and book reviews. In 2015 he published his first novel, 鈥淪ilence the Bird, Silence the Keeper,鈥� a m茅lange of magic realism and dystopian fiction set in a violent, gritty 1990s L.A. His second novel, 鈥淕ods on the Lam鈥� (2016), was another genre-busting work, set in the firefighting world he鈥檇 come to know while working in northern Arizona.

His new novel, 鈥�,鈥� published in February, tells the story of an ex-con named June鈥檚 return to his native L.A. to bury his father in 1999.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 a crime story, though I see a lot of (Cormac) McCarthy, Faulkner and (Flannery) O鈥機onnor in it,鈥� Rosales says. 鈥淚 really wanted to take Southern Gothic and drop it into Southern California.鈥�

Even as it flirts with surrealism, the novel has been praised for its vividly realistic depiction of a time and place unfamiliar to most Americans.

鈥淚f all stories are really either about someone leaving town or someone getting to town, then 鈥榃ord is Bone鈥� is, pretty much, all stories,鈥� says Stephen Graham Jones, author and professor of English at CU 麻豆影院, 鈥渂ut in a way that's so particular to southern California and the nineties that you'll find yourself looking down at your own feet, expecting them to be wrapped in June's cowboy boots.鈥�

For Rosales, telling stories set in the city where he grew up is a way of giving back.

鈥淚 see it as giving a voice to a community that doesn鈥檛 necessarily get heard,鈥� he says.

Rosales ticks off an impressively eclectic list of influences, from Zelazny to O鈥機onnor, Thomas McGuane, Raymond Carver and Toni Morrison. He is now at work on a new novel, which he describes as a modern retelling of Graham Greene鈥檚 thriller, 鈥淭he Third Man,鈥� set on the U.S.-Mexico border rather than Venice, Italy.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 about trying to shift our country鈥檚 relationship to Mexico,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a thriller, but I鈥檓 always going to trick you. It鈥檚 not just about being thrilled, but about being real.鈥�

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