Luis Omar SalinasLuis Omar Salinas was an important American poet and one of the pioneers of Chicano poetry. Born in Robstown, Texas he spent most of his life in California, moving to Fresno in the late 1960s where he became a prominent member of the Fresno School ofpoets associated with Philip Levine and Peter Everwine. His first book, Crazy Gypsy, was published in 1970 to great acclaim, and in 1973 he co-edited From the Barrio: A Chicano Anthology with Lilian Faderman, Professor of English at Fresno State. Salinas published eight books of poetry, many chapbooks, and his poetry was widely anthologized. Salinas received the Stanley Kunitz Award from Columbia Magazine, the Earl Lyon Award from Fresno State College, a General Electric Foundation Award, the Flume Press Chapbook Award for 1991, and he was invited to read at the Library of Congress. Salinas lived for his poetry, and as it developed and matured with each book, his work remained as arresting and inventive as it was at the beginning. After a career of almost forty years, he died in Fresno in 2008. Luis Omar Salinas was, and continues to be, one of the leading voices in Chicano literature as well as an important and essential voice in contemporary American poetry. Read More Read Less