Bio

Francisco Xavier Arguelles was born in 1953 in Monterrey, Mexico. His mother, Ruth Arguelles, was a single woman from a middle-class family in Tampico. Six years later Ruth married Charles Stork, a retired man of Dutch ancestry, who adopted Francisco.

When Francisco announced that he wanted to be a writer, Charlie gave him a portable typewriter for his seventh birthday. Two years later, Francisco and his family moved to El Paso, Texas, where he was sent to grammar school to learn English.

As a teenager, Francisco was given a scholarship to the local Jesuit academy and soon rose to the top of his class. Based on his success there, he received an honors scholarship to attend Spring Hill College, a small Jesuit school in Mobile, Alabama.

Francisco majored in English literature and philosophy and received the college’s creative writing prize. He was awarded the prestigious Danforth Fellowship to attend graduate school at Harvard University, where he studied Latin American literature with writers like Octavio Paz, the Mexican Nobel Laureate. After four years at Harvard, Francisco went to Columbia Law School, planning to make a living as a lawyer while writing fiction. Twenty years, and twelve or so legal jobs later, he published his first novel for adults, The Way of the Jaguar.

Francisco X. Stork works in Boston as an attorney for a state agency that develops affordable housing. He is married and has two adult children. For more information, visit www.franciscostork.com.

Watch a video interview with Francisco X. Stork.

Download a color brochure biography about Francisco.