Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida [Library Issue]

Dreaming of finding respect, Manuel Hernandez faces a difficult, tension-filled year as he prepares for his test of courage, which will mark his initiation into a gang, in a story of a young Chicano boy's coming-of-age experiences in California.

Victor Martinez was born and raised in Fresno, California and now lives in San Francisco. His poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in journals such as The Iowa Review and Bloomsbury Review. This is his first novel.

Victor Martinez says that his background "makes up the stuff of my work." Born and raised in Fresno, California, the fourth in a family of twelve children, he attended California State University at Fresno and Stanford University. He has also worked as a field laborer, welder, truck driver, firefighter, teacher, and office clerk.

Mr. Martinez's poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in a number of prestigious publications, including Si, El Andar, The Bloomsbury Review, The High Plains Literary Review, and The Iowa Review.

Victor Martinez lives with his wife in San Francisco. Parrot in the Oven: Mi vida--the story of Manny Hernandez's struggles with the awkwardness of adolescence as he searches for acceptance and becomes a vato firme, a stand-up guy--is his first novel.