NEWS

Julia Alvarez's Once Upon A Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the U.S.A. is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. These are annual awards given by a consortium of book reviewers and critics from around the country. There are six categories, five finalists in each category.

What I think is especially wonderful is that on a list of thirty finalists from the thousands upon thousands of books published each year, there are two Dominican-Americans (besides me, there is Junot Diaz, whose novel, The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, is a finalist for fiction) and from our neighbor country of Haiti, Edwidge Danticat, whose memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, is a finalist for the category of autobiography. Our island is rocking!

Check out the website.

The disheartening news is that How The García Girls Lost Their Accents has been banned by a school district in Johnston, North Carolina. The novel has come up for censorship before, but always cooler heads and freedom-loving minds prevailed. But not this time. The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) in conjunction with the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and PEN American Center have written to the Johnston Country School Board in protest. Mine is one of the many titles that will now be removed from the bookshelves and classrooms. Check out the NCAC website to read their letter as well as an interview with me about the banning. If any of you who would like to get involved in working against the censoring of books and individuals, the NCAC provides a wonderful toolkit including sample letters that can be written to the school board. Thanks for your support. We storytellers can easily become an endangered species!

It's been a long time coming, but finally my first novel, How The García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), is out in Spanish translation: (drum roll) De cómo las muchachas García perdieron su acento. Both Vintage Español (for USA Spanish) and Punto de Lectura/ Groupo Santillana (for Spanish-speaking countries) have published an edition of the same translation. Can't decide which cover I like better.

For those of you who feel deja-voodoo'd, you are right. The novel did briefly appear in a very Spanish-from-Spain translation back in 1992. The joke in the D.R. was that the García Girls had lost their accents twice.

MORE NEWS

On October 4th, the United Nations dedicated a session to honoring the work of my mother, Julia T. Alvarez. She was unable to attend due to illness, and so she asked me to go and accept the award in her place.

For twenty-three years, my mother served as alternate representative to the UN with the Dominican mission. Hers was a labor of love and public service. Many of her colleagues never knew that she never collected a salary; she felt that she had been one of the lucky few to receive opportunities and hers was a poor country that could well use the salary for other needs. She devoted herself to the Third Committee, which addresses issues involving the vulnerable populations in developing countries, including children, women, and the elderly, who became Mami's particular focus.

It was through her efforts that an International Year of Older Persons (1999) and an ongoing International Day of Older Persons (October 1st) were instituted as well as a declaration of the rights of older persons, known as the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. She was unofficially proclaimed "the United Nations Ambassador on Ageing." Her vision -- before she left the UN in 2002 -- was to start an worldwide Elders for Peace program, in which the elderly around the world would serve as promoters of peace. I hope someone picks up this torch!

At the award session, many of her colleagues and admirers expressed their gratitude for her relentless and visionary work. She helped change the way the United Nations address the ageing issue.

It was a bittersweet moment for me to bring to a close my mother's indefatigable, passionate, and groundbreaking life of public service.

If you'd like to see the webcast of the tribute, please go to:
www.un.org/webcast/2007.html
Then scroll down to:
4 October 07    NGO/DPI: NGO Briefing - "Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities of Ageing: Empowering Older Persons" in observance of the International Day of Older Persons (1 October).
[ Programme ]
[Webcast: Archived Video - AM Session English: 1 hour and 54 minutes]

The session recognizing my mother's work begins about 15 minutes into this webcast and lasts for about 30-40 minutes.

The speeches she gave over the years are collected in Speeches for the Ages: An Ambassador Speaks Out on Worldwide Aging. If you'd like to order a copy, you can do so at the XLibris website. Check out the La Ñapa on this website for an excerpt from the speech I gave in my mother's honor at the United Nations, which also serves in revised form as the epilogue to my mother's book.

AGING NEWS

My new nonfiction book, Once Upon A Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the U.S.A. is out (August 2007) with Viking Penguin. I went on tour in August, 2007 and met many of the wonderful people I interviewed across the country in researching this book.

see this book on Amazon.com: hardcover audio cd

Saving the World is now out in paperback with a brand new cover.

see also: Book Group Guide Further Reading see this book on Amazon.com: hardcover paperback audio cd en español: paperback more resources: Book Guide at readinggroupguides.com Interview at identitytheory.com Interview at powells.com

Para salvar el mundo, the Spanish translation of Saving the World, was published by Alfaguara/Santillana in November, 2006. But the official presentación took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on February 13, 2007. Several interviews and articles appeared in the local newspaper, including this one in Listín Diario.

Coming soon, Un regalo de gracias: la leyenda de la Altagracia, a Dominican edition by Alfaguara/Santillana of A Gift of Gracias: the Legend of Altagracia. This edition features luminous new illustrations by the Dominican painter and illustrator, Amaya Salazar. Beatriz Vidal's illustrations for the Knopf (USA) edition are equally stunning, though different. It's amazing what two glorious artists can do with the same text. In my next life, I definitely want to come back with a paintbrush in my hand!

"Doing the Write Thing," an article about the place of activism in this writer's life, appeared in Sojourners Magazine, Vol. 35, No. 10, November, 2006.

"Why Do Older Latina Women Worry?" an essay translated as "Mujer, ¿qué te preocupa?" in AARP Segunda Juventud, Abril/Mayo 2006. I was contacted by the editors to write a short personal essay to introduce the findings of a national study that concluded that Latina women worry about old age at a rate 30% higher than women of other races and nationalities. When I heard this, I felt relieved! So, it's not just me. . . Read what I have to say about Latina worrywarts!

My new novel, Saving the World, was published this past April, 2006. I completed a 20-city book tour which gave me an opportunity to meet many of my readers as well as reunite with old friends and favorite booksellers. Thank you all for welcoming this road-weary author to your cities and bookstores!

My article, "Third Time's the Charm," appeared in the January 2006 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. It is also part of a really wonderful collection of essays, Why I'm Still Married: Women Write Their Hearts Out on Love, Loss, Sex, and Who Does the Dishes, edited by Jean Trounstine and Karen Propp. The collection is in bookstores now. I've learned a lot from reading the other essays!

My children's book, A Gift of Gracias: the Legend of Altagracia, was published last October, 2005, in English and Spanish, Un regalo de Gracias: la leyenda de la Altagracia. I made the pilgrimage to Higüey on la Virgencita's feastday, January 21st, 2006, to present her with her very own copy, promesa cumplida!

In January, 2006, I was the guest of La Plaza, Conversations with Ilan Stavans on WGBH. There is an video/audio podcast available online: wgbh.org/conversations.

Director Julia Solomonoff's sassy & funny movie based on the chapter titled, "The Suitor," is available from GiganticPictures.com.

In the Time of the Butterflies was selected as the 2004 fall pick for Chicago's city-wide book club, "One Book, One Chicago," a part of the Chicago Book Festival, a month-long celebration of books, authors and reading. The Chicago Public library has developed some wonderful resource guides for the novel on its site. Check it out at chicagopubliclibrary.org.

2004 was the year for two new books. The Woman I Kept To Myself, a book of poems, published in April by Algonquin Books, and finding miracles, a young adult novel, published in October by Knopf. It has just been selected by The New York Public Library for its 2005 Books for the Teen Age list as well as to the Bank Street best books of the year list.

Before We Were Free won the 2004 Pura Belpré Award from the American Library Association. Check it out on their website www.ala.org. It also received the 2002 Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs and it was selected one of best books of year by the Miami Herald, 2002. Liliana Valenzuela's Spanish translation, Antes de ser libres, was selected one of the best books of 2004 by Críticas.

Some older good news is listed below.

Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, 2002, Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. September 20, 2002.

A Cafecito Story, awarded the Nebraska Book Award for Fiction, 2002.

How Tía Lola Came to Visit Stay, awarded Parent's Guide to Children's Media, Inc., outstanding book, 2001; awarded Child Magazine Best Children's Book recipient, 2001.

In the Name of Salomé chosen as one of the top 10 books of 2000 by Latino.com.

Enough of that!

Alta Gracia news

Vermont Coffee Company has launched Café Alta Gracia and Tres Mariposas. You can order online.

For every pound of our coffee purchased 10 cents go to the Dream Project's Alta Gracia school program!

If you want information on what's happening on the farm, upcoming workshops, internships, please go to cafealtagracia.com.

Read about the farm/our project in these recent publications:

• "Alvarez Brews Up Coffee with a Social Conscience: Cafe Alta Gracia Promotes Environmentalism, Literacy in Dominican Republic" by Deborah Jones at middleburycampus.com.
• "Couple Funds Literacy Through Coffee Imports," an Associated Press article by Anne Wallace Allen at burlingtonfreepress.com.
• "Places of a Lifetime" by Julia Alvarez in National Geographic Traveler, October 2002, Vol. 19, No. 7.

Alta Gracia is also a partner in the DREAM Project (The Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring Project). Read all about this grass-roots movement of individuals and organizations to help improve educational opportunities for kids all over la isla: dominicandream.org.

Caroline Stauffer is our new volunteer teacher at La Escuelita at the farm, starting this fall, 2006. She is a gradaute of Middlebury College (2006) and her stay has a triple sponsorship: by the DREAM Project; Middlebury College's Alliance for Civic Engagement; and the World Education Corps.

Caroline is keeping a blog about her experiences at the farm. It's quite a feat since in order to have access to the internet, she has to find a ride down the mountain and go to the local internet center and just hope and pray the electricity doesn't go off when she has just finished an entry. Visit her blog at carolinedr.blogspot.com.