A well known Southern California writer and reviewer, he is the author of the award-winning book ROSS MACDONALD: A Biography. He is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal’s Leisure and Arts page. He is also the editor of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR; collected short mysteries by Margaret Millar, the wife of Santa Barbara’s own mystery writer Ross Macdonald.  Tom’s latest is the just- published THE ARCHER FILES; The Complete Short Stories of Lew Archer, Private Investigator. It includes newly discovered case notes by the late Mr. Macdonald.

This annual award is named after Prof. Luis Leal, a major literary critic of Latin American, Mexican,and Chicano Literature. He was one of the early scholarly champions of the concept of Chicano literature. Since his retirement from the Univ. of Illinois, Leal has been a major presence at UCSB andin the Santa Barbara community. The Leal Award is presented to a Chicano/Latino writer in the United States whose body of work has achieved national and international reputation.

This year's award goes to Alejandro Morales.

Past recipients are:

2006 - Helena Maria Viramontes
2005 - Denise Chavez
2004 - Rudolfo Anaya
2003 - Oscar Hijuelos

This year's award goes to Al Young.