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ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: One Last Chance to Live
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.franciscostork.com/
CITY: Sherborn
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME: SATA 407
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born Francisco Xavier Arguelles, 1953, in Monterrey, Chiapas, Mexico; immigrated to United States, c. 1962; son of Charles Stork (stepfather) and Ruth Arguelles; married Jill Syverson (an educator); children: Nicholas, Anna.
EDUCATION:Spring Hill College, B.A.; attended Harvard University; Columbia University, J.D., 1982.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Lawyer and writer. Practiced real-estate law in Boston, MA, beginning 1982; practiced law for state agencies in MA, including Massport and Massachusetts Water Resources Authority; MassHousing (housing bank), Boston, MA, attorney, retired 2015.
AWARDS:Spring Hill College creative writing award; Danforth fellowship; Chicano/Latino Literary Prize, 2000, for The Way of the Jaguar; Américas Award Commended Title, and Books for the Teen Age selection, New York Public Library, both 2007, both for Behind the Eyes; Best Book for Young Adults designation, American Library Association (ALA), Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People selection, National Council for the Social Studies/Children’s Book Council, Notable Books for a Global Society society, International Reading Association, Schneider Family Book Award, and Once upon a World Children’s Book Award for Young Adults, Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance Library and Archives, all 2010, all for Marcelo in the Real World; Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents, ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults designation, and Américas Award Commended selection, all for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors; Tomás Rivera Award, for The Memory of Light; Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book, We Need Diverse Books, 2018, for Disappeared.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
In such award-winning novels as Marcelo in the Real World and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, Francisco X. Stork explores themes of cultural identity, religion, and alienation. Stork, a native of Mexico who lives in the United States, often features Latino characters in his works, which are aimed primarily at adolescent readers. “Many young people think about the most important issues of life,” the author noted in a TeensReadToo.com interview with Jennifer Wardrip. “They feel these issues (about fairness about beauty and evil and suffering and love and the meaning of life and death) in a way that many adults don’t. I want to write for young people about the important questions of existence in a way that they enjoy reading about them.”
Stork was born Francisco Xavier Arguelles in 1953. His single mother, Ruth Arguelles, eventually married Charles Stork, a Dutch-born American more than twenty years her senior who was retired and traveling in Mexico. Stork adopted Francisco and quickly proved to be a loving stepfather. Unfortunately, the family struggled to live on Stork’s Social Security pension and they decided to improve their lot by moving to El Paso, Texas, when Francisco was nine. Stork, then in his mid-sixties, could not find a job, however, and the family often faced eviction while living in a succession of shabby apartments and trailer houses.
When Francisco was thirteen years old, Charles Stork died in a car accident. Determined to stay in the United States, Ruth moved to a public housing project in El Paso, and Francisco earned a scholarship to a local Jesuit high school. There, his interests in the literary arts blossomed. “When I was a freshman in high school my English teacher gave me a list of the one hundred greatest books, and I went through the list, one book after another, starting with Antigone,” he remarked to Cynsations online interviewer Cynthia Leitich Smith. “I loved [Miguel de] Cervantes, and I loved all the Russian authors.” During this time, Stork also became an avid journal writer, a practice he continues to this day.
Upon graduating from high school, Stork enrolled at Spring Hill College, a Jesuit school located in Mobile, Alabama, where he majored in English and philosophy and received honors for his creative writing. He later attended Harvard University on a prestigious Danforth fellowship, studying Latin American literature with, among others, Nobel Prize-winning author Octavio Paz. After four years at Harvard, Stork entered Columbia University to study law, earning his degree in 1982. “I thought it would be easier for me to write novels if I was able to support myself some other way,” he told Smith. Stork then returned to Boston, working first in real-estate law and then for several state agencies.
Behind the Eyes, Stork’s first work for a young-adult audience, was based on his experiences growing up in a public housing unit. The novel concerns Hector Robles, a sensitive and intelligent sixteen-year-old living in the projects of El Paso. A promising scholar, Hector hopes to escape the cycle of violence and poverty surrounding his family by attending college. That dream is shattered, however, when Hector’s impulsive older brother, Filiberto, falls for the girlfriend of Chava, the leader of the Discípulos. Tensions between the two escalate until Filiberto is murdered and a grief-stricken Hector hunts down the gang leader, seeking revenge. In the aftermath of their brutal confrontation, Hector learns that he is marked for death, and for his own safety he is relocated to Furman, a reform school for troubled students. When a new student known as El Topo arrives at Furman, Hector fears that his life is once again in grave danger and he struggles to deal with his feelings of helplessness.
Selected as an Américas Award Commended selection, Behind the Eyes earned generally strong reviews. According to a contributor in Kirkus Reviews, Stork’s “narrative ultimately functions effectively as both cautionary tale and success story.” In Booklist, Hazel Rochman maintained that “the diverse characters are powerfully drawn, as is the elemental immigrant family story,” and Claire Rosser similarly noted in Kliatt that “the characters are sympathetic, and the complexities of the culture are delineated, with no stereotypes to take away from the story.”
In 2021 Stork offered a reimagined version of Behind the Eyes, titled On the Hook. The El Paso projects and Furman reform school in San Antonio remain the book’s setting, and the main characters—Hector, Fili, and Hector’s nemesis, Joey, now a more important character in the story—return as well. However, Stork adds new characters and rewrites some of the plot as well. Here, Stork focuses much of the novel’s attention on Hector and Joey’s time at Furman, as the two must grapple with their overwhelming urge at using violent means to avenge the past. They struggle to learn forgiveness and leave behind the cycle of violence. “Intense, at times brutal, but so vital for today’s polarized society, this book will hopefully encourage readers to have compassion for others, even those with whom they vehemently disagree,” concluded Booklist critic Reinhardt Suarez. A Kirkus Reviews contributor also praised the book, calling it “a staggering and fearless book” and remarking, “What starts as a quiet drama quickly escalates to a potent, fiery story while remaining a deep meditation about cycles of violence.”
The recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award, which honors works that portray the disability experience, Marcelo in the Real World focuses on a young man with Asperger’s syndrome. The novel was inspired in part by Stork’s memories of his senior year at Spring Hill College, when he worked at a L’Arche faith-based community. “So-called normal people lived with people with disabilities,” Stork remarked to David Mehegan in the Boston Globe, “so that they could learn from each other. We got three or four people to come live with us. There were people in the autism spectrum, though that was not a term that was prevalent.” The experience had a profound effect upon Stork; as he told School Library Journal interviewer Rick Margolis, “The people who are so-called disabled have a true place in our world and actually contribute to healing some of the things that are wrong in our society. What I took away from L’Arche was a sense of the vulnerability, the purity that these folks have, which is something that’s missing in the modern world.”
Marcelo in the Real World tells the story of Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old who leads a sheltered existence both at home and at his private school, Paterson, where he cares for therapy ponies. Highly intelligent, possessing an uncommon sense of right and wrong, and obsessed with religion, Marcelo still has difficulty establishing personal relationships and understanding social conventions, two things prized by his hard-driving father, Arturo, a Harvard-educated attorney who works in Boston. Convinced that his son needs to acclimate himself to life outside the safe bubble he has created at Patterson, Arturo proposes a deal: If Marcelo agrees to work in the mailroom at his father’s law firm during the summer and follow the rules of the “real world,” he can choose whether to remain at Paterson or attend a public high school. Marcelo soon learns to handle simple tasks, but he wrestles with his conscience and his faith when he finds a disturbing photograph of an injured girl, a casualty of one of the law firm’s clients.
“The psychological and moral concerns of the novel are so marbled into the story that they never overwhelm it, making Marcelo in the Real World not only an important new young adult novel but a pleasure to read,” Robert Lipsyte observed in appraising Stork’s novel in the New York Times Book Review. The protagonist’s “inspiring, brave journey into the real world will likely engender a fierce protective instinct in readers,” Jonathan Hunt reported in Horn Book.
Described by London Guardian critic Marcus Sedgwick as “honest, powerful and utterly convincing,” The Last Summer of the Death Warriors centers on the unlikely friendship between a vengeful Latino youth and a wheelchair-bound cancer patient. Set in New Mexico, the novel follows the adventures of Pancho Sanchez, an orphaned teen who believes that his developmentally disabled sister, recently found dead in a motel room, was actually murdered. Frustrated by the police department’s disinterest in the case, Pancho plans to launch his own investigation, determined to exact revenge on the man he believes is responsible. Assigned to St. Anthony’s, an orphanage in Las Cruces, Pancho meets Daniel “D.Q.” Quentin, an inquisitive youth suffering from brain cancer who introduces his new friend to the “Death Warrior Manifesto,” a philosophy that embraces love and purposeful living. Determined to find a cure for his illness, D.Q. recruits Pancho to join him on a trip to Albuquerque where he will receive experimental treatments, and Pancho accepts, believing that his sister’s killer resides there. At the treatment center, both teens fall in love with a beautiful and tenderhearted volunteer, a dilemma that complicates their friendship.
“The way these three stories pan out brings no enormous surprises or shocking twists,” Sedgwick noted in appraising Stork’s story in The Last Summer of the Death Warriors , “but this is not meant as a criticism; sometimes it should be, and is, enough that an author tells a simple story well.” New York Times Book Review contributor Ronald K. Fried declared of the novel that “Stork’s greatest gift … is for capturing Pancho’s inner conflicts and the psyche of an adolescent suffering an anguish he feels he cannot reveal to anyone, even the people he is coming to love.”
A pair of sisters must summon the courage to deal with a series of heart-wrenching crises in Irises, described as an “emotionally nuanced novel” by a critic in Publishers Weekly. After their minister father passes away unexpectedly, eighteen-year-old Kate and sixteen-year-old Mary face a troubling decision: what to do about their mother, who has been in a vegetative state following an accident that occurred years earlier. While Mary clings to hope that her mother may recover someday, Kate has plans to attend medical school and accepts that removing her from life support may be the most prudent and humane course of action. Matters are complicated even further when church officials announce plans to evict the sisters from the parsonage home to make room for their father’s replacement. When the girls’ insurance claim is denied, it forces them to make a decision that has consequences on several levels.
In Irises, “Stork never shies away from allowing his teenage characters to deal with tough philosophical issues,” as a contributor remarked in Kirkus Reviews. The Publishers Weekly critic observed that the tale will provoke teen reflection, writing that it “leaves lingering, contemplative questions regarding death, survival, and love.”
When Stork’s 2016 book, The Memory of Light, begins, sixteen-year-old Vicky Cruz has just unsuccessfully attempted suicide and is in a mental ward at the hospital. There, with the help of Dr. Desai and her three new friends (also mental patients), Vicky confronts her issues and reflects on troubles in her family life and her social life. In an interview with the author Mike Schlossberg on Schlossberg’s self-titled website, Stork discussed writing about depression, which he himself has experienced. He stated: “My hope is that in the process of reading the book, the reader will become involved with Vicky and the other characters in the book and grow to care for them. If that happens, there will be a good chance that the reader will be able transfer that same care and love to him or herself.” Anastasia M. Collins, critic in Horn Book, commented: “Stork … imbues his characters with honest pain and humor, lending truth to their struggles.” Voice of Youth Advocates reviewer, Loryn Aman, remarked: “Stork has written a very powerful story. Vicky is a relatable character.”
Disappeared tells the story of siblings Sara and Emiliano Zapata. Both are based in Juarez, Mexico. Sara, a young reporter for the newspaper, El Sol, begins investigating the serial kidnappings of local women, including her best friend, Linda. The information she uncovers implicates government authorities and drug cartels and puts Sara’s life at risk. Meanwhile, Emiliano is determined to become successful in business to gain the approval of his girlfriend’s father. He must decide whether or not he is willing to compromise his integrity to do so. A series of events leads to Sara and Emiliano making a dangerous journey to cross the border to the United States. Adrienne Amborski, contributor to Voice of Youth Advocates, offered a favorable assessment of Disappeared, asserting: “The characters are well developed, and the life-altering decisions that shape their lives are well crafted and believable.”
Stork told Megan Labrise, writer on the Kirkus Reviews website, that the political climate in mid-2010s America inspired the novel. He stated: “I started writing Disappeared at the time of the last presidential election, when there were so many caricatures of immigrants out there.” In an interview with a contributor to the Latinxs in Kid Lit website, Stork discussed how he developed the settings in the book, stating: “The idea here was to be as true as possible to reality. The reality of Mexico happens to be very complex, just like the reality of the United States is complex. If I were to show only the good side of Mexico, or a simplistic view of Mexico, I would be doing a disservice to Mexicans, to the reader, and to myself. The best antidote to stereotype is complexity.” Stork also discussed his intentions for the book with Roger Sutton, writer on the Horn Book website: “I wanted to convey how much of a sense of belonging you have in your own country that you lose when you come to a different country. Belonging—it’s a very difficult thing to describe, the comfort level that you have in your own culture, with your own language and your own food and your own people, so much so that you’re torn apart when you exchange cultures.”
Sara and Emiliano return in Illegal. Sara is being held at the Fort Stockton Detention Center while she hopes to be granted asylum. Emiliano, who possesses a cell phone with data about the kidnapped women that incriminates Juarez officials, searches for his father in America and tries to evade deportation. In an interview on Ofelia Montelongo’s website, Stork stated: “I wrote the book with the hope of diminishing the hatred that divides us.” A Kirkus Reviews critic described Illegal as “a brilliant, penetrating follow-up.” Reinhardt Suarez, reviewer in Booklist, suggested: “This book will not disappoint as both a thrilling page-turner and as a powerful analysis of injustice happening within America’s borders.”
In I Am Not Alone, Stork tells the story of an undocumented teenager in New York City who may or may not have committed a terrible crime. Alberto, an immigrant from Mexico, works hard to support his family back in Mexico while pursing his passion for pottery. At the same time, however, he is battling mental illness, fighting voices in his head urging him to commit violence. At his job, he strikes up a friendship with Grace, a well-to-do high-school senior. However, when an elderly client is murdered and Alberto becomes the main suspect, he and Grace go on the run. While dealing with Alberto’s frequent blackouts and hallucinations, Grace enlists others’ help to clear Alberto of the murder. “While the narrative’s high-stakes conflicts are front and center, it’s the sheer sweetness of Alberto and Grace’s love story that sets the tone of this hopeful read,” noted a Publishers Weekly critic. A Kirkus Reviews contributor likewise praised the novel, calling it “an illuminatingly powerful story about mental illness, young love, faith, and hope.”
Although he has only a few novels to his credit, Stork views his writing as integral to his career. “I have kind of found my calling,” he stated to Mehegan in the Boston Globe. “I remember what was going on between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. I always had a sense of young people at this stage of life.” While practicing law takes precedence over writing fiction, Stork still has tales to tell. “My day job seriously interferes with my stories,” he told Alexis Burling in a Teenreads.com interview. “Sometimes there’s not enough brainpower for both, and I must give precedence to what pays the bills. I can’t even say that my day job and my vocation, as I like to call it, complement each other. Let’s say that my ‘day job’ is most of the time kind enough to let me do what fills my heart with joy.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2006, Hazel Rochman, review of Behind the Eyes, p. 112; April 1, 2009, Ilene Cooper, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 38; December 15, 2011, Frances Bradburn, review of Irises, p. 53; June 1, 2020, Reinhardt Suarez, review of Illegal, p. 80; April 1, 2021, Reinhardt Suarez, review of On the Hook, p. 58.
Boston Globe, April 9, 2005, Johnny Diaz, “6 Days, 48 Writers, 1 Mission”; April 18, 2009, David Mehegan, “Francisco Stork in the Real World: A Lawyer, Battling His Own Depression, Writes a Young-Adult Novel about an Autistic Teenager.”
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, September, 2006, Maggie Hommel, review of Behind the Eyes, p. 36; April, 2009, Deborah Stevenson, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 337; February, 2012, Karen Coats, review of Irises, p. 324.
Guardian (London, England), July 10, 2010, Marcus Sedgwick, review of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, p. 16.
Horn Book, March 1, 2009, Jonathan Hunt, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 204; March-April, 2010, Jonathan Hunt, review of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, p. 74; March-April, 2016, Anastasia M. Collins, review of The Memory of Light, p. 9; September-October, 2017, Alia Jones, review of Disappeared, p. 109.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, September, 2010, James Blasingame, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 73.
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2006, review of Behind the Eyes, p. 58; January 15, 2009, review of Marcelo in the Real World; February 15, 2010, review of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors; November 15, 2011, review of Irises; June 15, 2020, review of Illegal; April 1, 2021, review of On the Hook; June 1, 2023, review of I Am Not Alone.
Kliatt, May, 2006, Claire Rosser, review of Behind the Eyes, p. 16.
New York Times Book Review, May 10, 2009, Robert Lipsyte, “The Summer of Living Dangerously,” review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 17; April 11, 2010, Ronald K. Fried, “A Quest for Belonging,” review of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, p. 15.
Publishers Weekly, April 24, 2000, review of The Way of the Jaguar, p. 61; April 2, 2009, Donna Freitas, interview with Stork; January 5, 2009, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 51; January 11, 2010, review of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, p. 49; November 14, 2011, review of Irises, p. 55; June 5, 2023, review of I Am Not Alone, p. 81.
School Library Journal, October, 2006, Morgan Johnson-Doyle, review of Behind the Eyes, p. 174; March, 2009, Rick Margolis, “Saint in the City: Francisco X. Stork’s Latest Novel Is Marcelo in the Real World,” p. 29, and Wendy Smith-D’Arezzo, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 156; March, 2010, Johanna Lewis, review of The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, p. 166; December, 2011, Geri Diorio, review of Irises, p. 132.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2009, Elsworth Rockefeller, review of Marcelo in the Real World, p. 143; December, 2011, Shana Morales, review of Irises, p. 502; February, 2016, Loryn Aman, review of The Memory of Light, p. 65; October, 2017, Adrienne Amborski, review of Disappeared, p. 65.
ONLINE
Cynsations, http://cynleitichsmith.livejournal.com/ (July 20, 2010), Cynthia Leitich Smith, “Author Feature: Francisco X. Stork.”
Follett Library Services, http://www.flr.follett.ca/ (June 1, 2010), “Behind the Book: Francisco X. Stork.”
Francisco X. Stork website, https://www.franciscostork.com (November 28, 2023).
Horn Book, https://www.hbook.com/ (October 11, 2017), Roger Sutton, author interview.
Hub, http://www.yalsa.ala.org/ (September 8, 2016), Julie Bartel, author interview.
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (July 12, 2020), Megan Labrise, author interview.
Latinxs in Kid Lit, https://latinosinkidlit.com/ (October 23, 2017), author interview.
Literary Arts, https://literary-arts.org/ (May 14, 2021), author profile.
Mike Schlossberg website, https://mikeschlossbergauthor.com/ (May 30, 2018), Mike Schlossberg, author interview.
Ofelia Montelongo website, https://ofeliamv23.medium.com/ (May 4, 2020), Ofelia Montelongo, author interview.
PEN America, https://pen.org/ (August 7, 2020), author interview.
Teenreads.com, http://www.teenreads.com/ (March 1, 2009), Alexis Burling, author interview; (May 1, 2009) Alexis Burling, review of Marcelo in the Real World; (March 1, 2010) Norah Piehl, author interview.
TeensReadToo.com, http://www.teensreadtoo.com/ (May 1, 2011), Jennifer Wardrip, author interview.”*
About Francisco X. Stork
Francisco Xavier Arguelles was born in 1953 in Monterrey, Mexico. Ruth Arguelles, his mother, was a single mother from a middle class family in Tampico (a city on the Gulf of Mexico). The reason Francisco was born in Monterrey rather than in Tampico, where Ruth lived, is that her father did not want anyone to know that she was going to have a child out of wedlock. She was sent to Monterrey to live in a convent until the baby was born. The baby was supposed to be given up for adoption, but Ruth changed her mind. After a while, Grandfather Adalberto relented and mother and baby Francisco were allowed to come home.
Francisco Stork
Six years later Ruth married Charles Stork, a retired man more twenty years her senior. Charles Stork adopted Francisco and gave him his name. Charlie was a kind but strict Dutch man who quickly went about instilling needed discipline in his new son. For his seventh birthday, Charlie gave Francisco a portable typewriter because Francisco announced that he wanted to be a writer. After wandering about Mexico for a few years trying to live on a Social Security pension, Charlie decided to bring the family to the United States where he hoped they would fare better.
The three of them came to El Paso, Texas when Francisco was nine. Charlie, an American citizen was able to obtain the necessary visas for Ruth and Francisco. Francisco was sent to grammar school where he learned English on the go. Unfortunately, no one was willing to give the sixty-five-year-old Charlie a job and so it became even harder for the family to survive in the United States. They lived in a variety of apartments and trailer houses staying in each for as long as possible before getting evicted.
When Francisco was thirteen, Charlie Stork died in an automobile accident. Ruth decided to stay in the United States. She and the boy obtained an apartment in one of the public housing projects of El Paso. Francisco was awarded a scholarship to the local Jesuit High School and soon rose to the top of his class. During his senior year, he received an Honor’s Scholarship (full tuition and living expenses) to attend Spring Hill College, a small Jesuit College in Mobile Alabama.
At Spring Hill College, Francisco majored in English Literature and Philosophy and received the college’s creative writing award. After college, a Danforth Fellowship (awarded to 40 college seniors out of approximately 5,000 applicants) allowed him to attend graduate school at Harvard University. At Harvard he studied Latin American Literature with people like Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel Laureate. However, the emphasis on scholarly research and writing seemed too remote and irrelevant to all that was important. So, after four years of Harvard, Francisco went to Columbia Law School. His plan was to make a living as a lawyer without abandoning his plan to write fiction. Twenty years and twelve or so legal jobs later, Francisco published his first novel. Francisco practiced law for thirty-three years in a variety of private and public venues. For the last fifteen years as a lawyer he worked at MassHousing, a state agency dedicated to financing affordable housing. He retired in 2015 and spends his time writing outside of Boston. Francisco is married to Jill Syverson-Stork. He is the father of Nicholas and Anna and the grandfather of four beautiful grandchildren
Francisco X Stork
Mexico
Francisco X. Stork was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and moved to the United States when he was nine. He studied Latin American literature at Harvard before completing a law degree at Columbia University. Publishers Weekly praised his first novel, THE WAY OF THE JAGUAR, as a "splendidly intense debut." His second book, BEHIND THE EYES, was selected as both a Commended title for the Americas Award and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.
Francisco works as an attorney for an affordable-housing agency in Massachusetts. He lives near Boston with his wife.
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Young Adult Romance
Series
Disappeared
1. Disappeared (2017)
2. Illegal (2020)
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Novels
The Way of the Jaguar (2000)
Behind the Eyes (2006)
Marcelo in the Real World (2009)
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors (2010)
Irises (2012)
The Memory of Light (2016)
On the Hook (2021)
I Am Not Alone (2023)
One Last Chance to Live (2024)
Francisco X. Stork
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francisco X. Stork
X. Stork
Born Francisco Xavier Arguelles
1953 (age 71–72)
Monterrey, Mexico
Occupation Writer, novelist, attorney (retired)
Language English
Nationality Mexican-American
Education Spring Hill College (BA)
Harvard University (graduate studies)
Columbia Law School (JD)
Genre Young adult fiction
Notable works Marcelo in the Real World, Disappeared, The Memory of Light
Notable awards Schneider Family Book Award (2010)
Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book (2018)
Walden Award - ALA
Spouse Jill Syverson-Stork
Children 2
Website
franciscostork.com
Francisco Xavier Stork (né Francisco Xavier Arguelles, born 1953)[1] is a Mexican-American writer. He is best known for his award-winning 2009 book, Marcelo in the Real World. He is the author of eleven novels, including Disappeared, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book, and One Last Chance to Live, published in September 2024.
Personal life
Francisco Xavier Arguelles was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1953 to single mother Ruth Arguelles.[2] Because he was born outside of wedlock, his mother was sent to a convent to birth the child.[1] Although he was supposed to be adopted, his mother decided to keep him.[1] Eventually, his grandfather let both him and his mother to move back to their home city, Tampico.[2]
When he was six years old, Charles Stork, a retired American citizen, married Ruth Arguelles, adopted Francisco, and moved the three-member family to El Paso, Texas. Francisco emigrated from Mexico at the age of nine with his mother and his adoptive father. Charles "Charlie" Stork, a Dutch man 20 years Arguelles's elder, gave Francisco a typewriter for his seventh birthday, beginning Francisco's love of storytelling.[2]
Francisco attended a grammar school, where he learned English.[1][2]
Charlie Stork died in a car crash when Francisco was 13.[1]
Stork is a Christian.[3] He is married to Jill Syverson-Stork and has two children (Nicholas and Anna) and four grandchildren.[1] He lives with his wife outside of Boston.[1]
Education
At thirteen years old, Stork received a scholarship to the local Jesuit High School.[2] He rose to the top of his class, and eventually received a full-ride scholarship to Spring Hill College, a Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama, where he studied English Literature and Philosophy.[2] There, he won his first prize in creative writing.[2]
After graduating from Spring Hill College, Stork received a Danforth Fellowship, which allowed him to attend Harvard University, where he studied Latin American Literature.[2]
Deciding academia was too distant from the problems people were facing in the world, Stork attended Columbia Law School.[2]
Career
Stork began his career as an attorney in 1982 and continued until his retirement in 2015.[1] Beginning in 2000, Stork worked at MassHousing, a Massachusetts state agency that finances affordable housing. Eight of his eleven novels were written while he worked as a lawyer.[1]
After working in the legal field for twenty years, Stork published his first novel.[1]
Publications
The Way of the Jaguar (2000)
Behind the Eyes (2006)
Marcelo in the Real World (2009)
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors (2010)
Irises (2012)
The Memory of Light (2016)
On the Hook (2021)
I Am Not Alone (2023)
One Last Chance to Live (2024)
Disappeared series
Disappeared (2017)
Illegal (2020)
Anthology contributions
What You Wish For: A Book for Darfur (2012)
Two and Twenty Dark Tales: Dark Retellings of Mother Goose Rhymes (2012)
Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices, edited by Mitali Perkins (2013)
Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Struggles, edited by Jessica Burkhart (2018)
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens, edited by Marieke Nijkamp (2018)
Ab(solutely) Normal, edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter and Rockey Callen (2023)
Awards and honors
Five of Stork's books, plus two audiobooks, are Junior Library Guild selections: On the Hook,[4] Disappeared,[5][6] The Memory of Light,[7][8] The Last Summer of the Death Warriors,[9] and Marcelo in the Real World.[10]
Four of his books have been included in lists of the best young adult books of the year. Publishers Weekly included Marcelo in the Real World on their 2009 list[11] and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors on their 2010 list.[12] Bank Street College of Education named The Last Summer of the Death Warriors one of their Best Books of 2011 for ages 12-14.[13] Kirkus Reviews named The Memory of Light one of the best teen books of 2016[14] and Disappeared one of the best teen books of 2017.[15] The Chicago Public Library also named Disappeared one of the best young adult books of the year.[16]
Year Title Award/Honor Result Ref.
2009 Marcelo in the Real World Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books for Youth Selection [17]
2010 Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Selection [18]
Best Books for Young Adults Top 10 [19]
Schneider Family Book Award for Teen Book Winner [20][21]
2011 The Last Summer of the Death Warriors Best Books for Young Adults Top 100 [22]
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Finalist [23]
2017 The Memory of Light Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Top 100 [24]
Américas Award Commended Title [8]
Best Fiction for Young Adults Top 100 [25]
2018 Disappeared Best Fiction for Young Adults Top 100 [26]
Disappeared Walter Dean Myers Award Honor [27][28]
Stork, Francisco X. ONE LAST CHANCE TO LIVE Scholastic (Teen None) $19.99 9, 3 ISBN: 9781339010236
Nico wants to write his way out of his life, but does he have what it takes?
Seventeen-year-old Nico Kardos wants to be a writer. He also wants to go to Sarah Lawrence College and get away from his Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point, where the girl he'd loved his whole life, Rosario Zamora, died from a heroin overdose six months earlier and where Javier, his younger half brother, is headed for a cruel, hard life in the local gang, the X-Tecas. One night Nico has what he believes to be a prophetic dream about his own death and the deaths of his mom and Javier. In the dream, Rosario appears and says something to him that he can't recall when he wakes up. When Nico's mother falls seriously ill just one week later, he wonders whether he can change his future--and whether he wants to. Is he fated to follow in Rosario's footsteps? In this story that unfolds in the form of journal entries for his AP English class, Nico's interior monologue feels raw and real, expressed in an authentic, youthful voice. The grittiness of his reality--absent fathers, the need for money, and the desire for bigger things--is at the core of award-winner Stork's latest. At times the journal entries make narrative jumps that feel jolting, but the novel moves at a quick clip and is hard to put down. All major characters are Latine.
An honest, brutal exploration of reality.(Fiction. 13-18)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Stork, Francisco X.: ONE LAST CHANCE TO LIVE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A804504677/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4b8dbb45. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
One Last Chance to Live
Francisco X. Stork. Scholastic Press, $ 19.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-3390-1023-6
A grieving teen from the Bronx turns a class journal into a lifeline in this high-stakes page-turner from Stork (I Am Not Alone). "Half Mexican" 17-year-old Nico, who aspires to become a "great writer," works at the fish market before school and sells weed for the X-Teca gang. His routines are thrown asunder by an eerie dream about his deceased unrequited love, Puerto Rican--cued Rosario, which seems to prophesize his death, as well as the deaths of his mother and 12-year-old half brother Javier. When his mother is diagnosed with lung cancer and Javier begins his X-Teca initiation, Nico's dream starts to feel real. In response, he dedicates his AP English journal to investigating how college-bound Rosario--whose writerly ambitions inspired Nico's future plans--died via a heroin overdose. By understanding Rosario's life, will Nico be able to save his own? As he works through his unresolved grief and struggles to cope with worsening home dynamics, Nico's daily writing assignments morph into a "novelesque... journal on steroids" that probes honesty, truth, and a writer's way of life. Plainly yet piercingly voiced by a complex, flawed protagonist navigating tough choices, this immersive tale concludes with a brief--and powerful--message of hope. Ages 12--up. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"One Last Chance to Live." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 25, 24 June 2024, p. 64. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A800404920/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b510f377. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.