Dagoberto Gilb was born in the city of Los Angeles, his mother a Mexican who crossed the border illegally, and his father a Spanish-speaking Anglo raised in East Los Angeles. He studied philosophy and religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with both bachelor's and master's degrees. After that, he began his life as a construction worker, eventually joining the union in Los Angeles; a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. As a class-A journeyman carpenter, his employment for the next twelve years was on high-rise buildings, including MOCA. His books include The Magic of Blood (1993), which won the 1994 PEN/Hemingway Award, ,i>The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña (1994), A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Woodcuts of Women (2001), and Gritos (2003). Gilb recently published, as its editor, Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature (2006). He is now a tenured professor in the Creative Writing Program at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas.