Canto Hondo

Francisco X. Alarcón was born in Los Angeles, California on February 21, 1954. He grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico. He received an undergraduate degree from California State University at Long Beach and a MA from Stanford University. He was the author of 14 collections of poetry for both children and adults.

His collections of poetry for adults include Body in Flames/Cuerpo en Llamas; De Amor Oscuro/Of Dark Love; From the Other Side of Night/Del Otro Lado de la Noche: New and Selected Poems; Ce Uno One: Poemas para el Nuevo Sol/Poems for the New Sun; Borderless Butterflies: Earth Haikus and Other Poems/Mariposas sin Fronteras: Haikus Terrenales y Otros Poemas; and Canto Hondo/Deep Song. Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation won the American Book Award. He also received the 1984 Chicano Literary Prize, the 1993 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and a Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association in 2002.

His collections of poetry for children include Angels Ride Bikes and Other Fall Poems/Los Angeles Andan en Bicicleta y Otros Poemas de Otoño and Iguana in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la Nieve y Otros Poemas de Invierno. Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems/Jitomates Risuenos y Otros Poemas de Primavera won the National Parenting Publications Gold Award and From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/Del Ombligo de la Luna y Otros Poemas de Verano won the American Library Association's Pura Belpré Honor Award for Latino Literature.

He served as director of the Spanish for Native Speakers Program at the University of California at Davis, and taught for the Art of the Wild workshop and the California Poets in the Schools program. He died of cancer on January 15, 2016 at the age of 61.

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