R J Hembree - Writers' Village University

Sergio Troncoso, philosopher, economist, and writer, graduated from Harvard
with honors, earned a Fulbright Scholarship, and then added a few
graduate degrees from Yale for good measure. He teaches at Yale and
speaks at writing workshops in universities and schools across the country. His
stories and essays are available in numerous publications and anthologies,
including The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (W.W. Norton & Company),
Latino Boom: An Anthology of U. S. Latino Literature (Pearson/Longman
Publishing), and New World: Young Latino Writers (Dell Publishing).
In 1998, the first issue of T-Zero featured an interview with Troncoso and
included his short story, “Espíritu Santo.” The Internet, maturing from infancy to
toddler but still a little wobbly with frequent crashes, frustrating connection
speeds, and refrigerator-art websites, changed the world. But we had IRC chat
rooms by then, and Sergio, his short story collection awaiting publication, was
brave enough to join us for a Writers’ Village Guest Chat. This was no small
accomplishment—in a loosely moderated chat, we demonstrated the ability to carry
on a dozen simultaneous conversations, a testament to human cognitive capacities.
So began the Age of Multitasking.
Now ten years later, resuming my role of Editor once again, it’s only fitting to
complete the circle and find out what our friend has been up to. I began my
research, and Sergio Troncoso, as I suspected, was not hard to find. He’s authored
the award-winning book, The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, the highly acclaimed
novel, The Nature of Truth, and weighs in at exactly 12,400 Google search results.
Once again, Sergio, multi-tasker extraordinaire, the undisputed champion, weighs
in for T-Zero’s newest incarnation, T-Zero Quarterly.
HEMBREE: Reading The Nature of Truth, I’m reminded of Skinner, Koestler,
Eco, Nietzsche and others who’ve fused academic disciplines with fiction,
bringing their ideas alive in literature. Did the structure of The Nature of Truth
grow from philosophical ideas, and then life representations created to illustrate
them, or did the story unfold on its own, perhaps naturally illustrating the ideas,
a combination, or was it some other process?
15