Critically-acclaimed writer Floyd Salas, the author of eight books, including a recent Kindle publication about the Californio period, Widow's Weeds, is considered a pioneer in American Hispanic literature: "When some of the new "ethnic" voices become national treasures themselves, it will be in part because the generation of Salas, Anaya, Thomas and Hinojosa served as their compass," wrote Ilyan Stevens in a 1993 Nation article. Two of Salas' books, the novel Tattoo the Wicked Cross and his acclaimed memoir Buffalo Nickel ("The best memoir in a decade" - Los Angeles Times), are included in Masterpieces of Latino Literature (HarperCollins 1994). Tattoo the Wicked Cross also earned a place on the San Francisco Chronicle's Western 100 List of Best 20th Century Fiction. Besides winning a number of awards and fellowships including National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation and California Arts Council fellowships and a Joseph Henry Jackson Award, Salas has also been honored as an educator. His teaching positions have ranged from a stint as Regent's Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley to instructing lifers in how to write poetry at San Quentin and Folsom Prisons. He was an assistant boxing coach at University of California, Berkeley, for some years and his knowledge of and love of the sport has informed his writing. Also a former staff writer for the NBC drama, Kingpin, released in February, 2003, his fiction, non-fiction and poetry manuscripts as well as letters and biographical information are archived in the Floyd Salas collection in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. He has recently completed a novel about 1940s Oakland entitled 7th Street Jump. He is also working on Maverick: Prayers of Heresy, a volume of new and selected poems from the last fifty years. He is president of the multicultural writing group PEN Oakland. Further information about his life and work may be obtained at http://www.floydsalas.com