Noted author gives reading at La Sierra University

“The more work a person does to develop their characters, the closer I’ll feel to them, the more investment I'll have in them,” said Jaime-Becerra, a creative writing associate professor whose books have won high-profile awards and garnered national media reviews. “That sense of investment is what keeps me turning the page.”

Jaime-Becerra is the author of his own page-turners, books whose poignant, struggling, down-to-earth characters drawn from memories of his childhood in the suburb of El Monte captured the attention of noted literary organizations. They include a short-story collection titled “Every Night Is Ladies’ Night,” and the novel “This Time Tomorrow.” The works respectively won a California Book Award, Silver Medal for a First Work of Fiction and an International Latino Book Award for Best Novel. His short story collection was named one of the best of the year by The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle.

On Tues., Oct. 14, Jaime-Becerra gave a reading from his books at La Sierra University’s Matheson Hall. The event was free and open to the public.

“Every Night Is Ladies’ Night,” a collection of 10 interrelated stories published in 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers, draws readers into the hearts, lives and strivings of teenagers, beauty queens, racecar drivers and grandfathers as they struggle to find and maintain their places in the world. “This Time Tomorrow,” published in 2010 by Thomas Dunne Books, is written from three perspectives and tells the story of Gilbert Gaeta, a financially stressed forklift operator who is raising a 13-year-old daughter and dreaming of proposing to his girlfriend. His daughter and his girlfriend have their own dreams, however, which sometimes work at cross-purposes with Gilbert’s.

It took three years to complete the short story collection, and about six to finish the novel, said Jaime-Becerra. “There seems to be a theme of responsibility running through both books, characters struggling with it, characters wanting less of it, and there also seems to be one of ambition as well, with characters looking to improve their lives in one way or another,” he said.

Jaime-Becerra received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine and currently teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. He continues to live in El Monte, and notes the influence of his family on the trajectory of his career.

“I’ve been lucky in that books and literature and writing have always been an interest,” he said. “While I don't come from a family of writers, my mother does paint, which contributes greatly to my eye for detail, I think, and my father, whose [job] as a meat cutter began at 4 a.m. for nearly 25 years, showed me a sense of the work ethic it takes not just to do something, but to hopefully do it well.”