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Meet Julia

Born in New York City in 1950, Julia Alvarez's parents returned to their native country, Dominican Republic, shortly after her birth.  Ten years later, the family was forced to flee to the United States because of her father’s involvement in a plot to overthrow the dictator, Trujillo. 

Alvarez has written novels (How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, In the Time of the Butterflies, ¡Yo!, In the Name of Salomé, Saving the World, Afterlife), collections of poems (Homecoming, The Other Side/ El Otro Lado, The Woman I Kept to Myself), nonfiction (Something to Declare, Once Upon A Quinceañera, and A Wedding in Haiti), and numerous books for young readers (including the Tía Lola Stories series, Before We Were Free, finding miracles, Return to Sender and Where Do They Go?).  

Her most recent novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, was published in 2024 and will be published in paperback in April 2025.

Alvarez’s awards include the Pura Belpré and Américas Awards for her books for young readers, the Hispanic Heritage Award, and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award.  In 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama.

In 2024, she was the subject of an American Masters documentary, “Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined,” on PBS. Alvarez is one of the founders of Border of Lights, a movement to promote peace and collaboration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  She lives in Vermont.

 

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Today would have been Gloria Naylor's 74th birthday. @naylorarchive Too soon gone. How I miss my old friend. Thank goodness she left behind some wonderful novels. May she rest in peace.
What happens when a story refuses to go untold? In my forthcoming novel, THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES, the characters defy their buried fates and release their pressing tales to the wind and anyone willing to listen. Will you lend an ear? Barnes
My story, “Lost in America,” was published in The Enchantment Issue of @_conjunctions . You can find a link to the issue in my bio!
Recently visited @mariposadrfoundation and spent the day with so many brilliant young Mariposas. I wish I could hug them all at once!
Thank you to all the lists that have included THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES in their Most Anticipated for 2024. I’m looking forward to sharing my new novel with you all soon!
I was recently part of a roundtable, which included Lisa Gornick (host), Fiona Davis, Andrea Lee, and Elizabeth Strout, on the theme “Writing ‘Women of a Certain Age.’” I enjoyed it and learned a lot; I hope you do too and fin
The Mirabal sisters live on in the Mariposa DR Foundation. These are our future Mariposas. Consider contributing to their education, giving them wings to soar into the lives of their dreams. Link to donate is in my bio.
Today we remember the Mirabal sisters, three of whom, Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, along with their driver, Rufino de la Cruz, were murdered by the dictator’s thugs on November 25th. The fourth sister, Dedé, lived on to tell the