UCI professor chosen to receive literature award

UC Irvine professor and novelist Alejandro Morales will be named the 2007 recipient of the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature Saturday. The award recognizes Morales’ contributions to Chicano/Latino literature and his accomplishments as a major American writer.

Morales has written several biographical novels in which he tells the fictional story of a character’s life using historical events, combining his passion for history and writing.

“A lot of my ideas for novels come from real-life experiences,” Morales said in a news release, referring to his fourth novel, “The Brick People.” The novel tells the story of an immigrant family that settles in Simons in the early 1900s and work for the Simons Brick Co. Morales’ parents lived there and worked for that factory.

Morales will receive the award at the Santa Barbara Book and Author Festival.

— Joseph Serna