They Call You Back
The author will participate in a moderated conversation with Juan Felipe Herrera, United States Poet Laureate, 2015 – 2017.
A haunting, an obsession, a calling: Tim Z. Hernandez has been searching for people his whole life. In this highly anticipated memoir, he takes us on an odyssey through personal and collective history to uncover the surprising conjunctions that bind our stories together. Hernandez’s mission to find the families of the 28 Mexicans killed in the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon forms the basis for his acclaimed documentary novel All They Will Call You, lauded by The San Francisco Chronicle as “a stunning piece of investigative journalism” and by The New York Times as “painstaking detective work by a writer who is the descendent of farmworkers.” With They Call You Back, described by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz as a “brilliant Joycean work of memoir,” Hernandez continues his search for the victims while turning the lens on himself and his ancestral past, revealing the tumultuous and deeply intimate experiences that have fueled his investigations—a lifelong journey haunted by memory, addiction, generational trauma, and the spirit world.
Tim Z. Hernandez is an award-winning author, research scholar, and performer. His work includes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. His debut collection of poems Skin Tax received the American Book Award, his debut novel Breathing, In Dust the 2010 Premio Aztlan Prize, and his novel Mañana Means Heaven the 2014 International Latino Book Award in historical fiction. In 2018, he was recognized by the California Senate for his research on locating the victims of the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, an incident made famous by Woody Guthrie’s song of the same name, and chronicled in his books All They Will Call You and They Call You Back. Hernandez is an Associate Professor with the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual Creative Writing program.
Juan Felipe Herrera is the author of more than thirty books, including collections of poetry, most recenty California Brown: Illuminations & Hollers (Mouthfeel Press, 2024); prose; short stories; young adult novels; and picture books for children. In 2015, he was appointed the 21st United States Poet Laureate, the first Mexican American to hold the position, and is the recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Buy your books at Ampersand and join the conversation!
Books by Tim Z. Hernandez
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Books by Juan Felipe Herrera
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This is an online event streamed via Zoom.
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