Floyd Salas

Floyd Salas
January 23, 1931 – October 17, 2021
After a long illness, longtime Bay Area resident and award-winning writer and teacher Floyd Salas, 90, died at his Berkeley home with his son Gregory and wife Claire Ortalda at his side.
Born in Walsenburg, Colorado to Ed Salas and Anita Sanchez Salas, Floyd moved at age 8 to California. An accomplished artist and sculptor, Floyd attended California College of Arts and Crafts and San Francisco State University where he received a BA in English and an MA in Creative Writing, working under Walter Van Tilburg Clark and other noted writers of the time. His first novel Tattoo the Wicked Cross, won the Joseph Henry Jackson Award and was published by Grove Press in 1967. Grove also published his second novel, What Now My Love. His third novel, Lay My Body on the Line, published by Ishmael Reed and Al Young's Y'Bird Press, fictionally explored the political turmoil at San Francisco State during the 1960s where Floyd himself had been an activist for peace and social justice issues. Other published works included the novel State of Emergency and three volumes of poetry. Several of his books were published internationally and his work was included in numerous anthologies and periodicals.
A popular and award-winning teacher of creative writing, he was 2002-2003 Regent's Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley, staff writer for the NBC drama series, Kingpin, and the recipient of California Arts Council, Rockefeller Foundation, NEA, and Eugene F. Saxton fellowships. Tattoo the Wicked Cross earned a place on the San Francisco Chronicle's Western 100 List of Best 20th Century Fiction and also, along with his memoir Buffalo Nickel, is featured in Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature (HarperCollins 1994). He was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 (American Book Awards). September 28, 2010 was proclaimed Floyd Salas Day by the City of Berkeley in honor of his many contributions to the community. His manuscripts and papers are archived in the Floyd Salas collection in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. More information about Floyd and his work is available at his website, www.floydsalas.com.
Floyd will be missed by the many students and readers whose lives he affected by his words, example and encouragement and by his wide circle of family and friends. He was buried October 28th in a private ceremony at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland.