Héctor Tobar was born in 1963 in Los Angeles, California. He received an M.F.A. from the University of California at Irvine and became a reporter with the Los Angeles Times in the 1980's. Along with a team of writers, he was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the L.A. riots in 1992.
He has written both fiction and non-fiction works. His novels include The Tattooed Soldier and The Barbarian Nurseries, which won the California Book Award Gold Medal for Fiction. His non-fiction works include Translation Nation and Deep Down Dark.
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