Julia Alvarez Popular Books

Julia Alvarez Biography & Facts

Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is an American New Formalist poet, novelist, and essayist. She rose to prominence with the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), and Yo! (1997). Her publications as a poet include Homecoming (1984) and The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004), and as an essayist the autobiographical compilation Something to Declare (1998). She has achieved critical and commercial success on an international scale and many literary critics regard her to be one of the most significant contemporary Latina writers. Julia Alvarez has also written several books for younger readers. Her first picture book for children was "The Secret Footprints" published in 2002. Alvarez has gone on to write several other books for young readers, including the "Tía Lola" book series.Born in New York, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country. Many of Alvarez's works are influenced by her experiences as a Dominican-American, and focus heavily on issues of immigration, assimilation, and identity. She is known for works that examine cultural expectations of women both in the Dominican Republic and the United States, and for rigorous investigations of cultural stereotypes. In recent years, Alvarez has expanded her subject matter with works such as 'In the Name of Salomé (2000)', a novel with Cuban rather than solely Dominican characters and fictionalized versions of historical figures. In addition to her successful writing career, Alvarez is the current writer-in-residence at Middlebury College. Biography Early life and education Julia Alvarez was born in 1950 in New York City. When she was three months old, her family moved back to the Dominican Republic, where they lived for the next ten years. She attended the Carol Morgan School. She grew up with her extended family in sufficient comfort to enjoy the services of maids. Critic Silvio Sirias believes that Dominicans value a talent for story-telling; Alvarez developed this talent early and was "often called upon to entertain guests". In 1960, the family was forced to flee to the United States after her father participated in a failed plot to overthrow the island's military dictator, Rafael Trujillo, circumstances which would later be revisited in her writing: her novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, for example, portrays a family that is forced to leave the Dominican Republic in similar circumstances, and in her poem, "Exile", she describes "the night we fled the country" and calls the experience a "loss much larger than I understood".Alvarez's transition from the Dominican Republic to the United States was difficult; Sirias comments that she "lost almost everything: a homeland, a language, family connections, a way of understanding, and a warmth". She experienced alienation, homesickness, and prejudice in her new surroundings. In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, a character asserts that trying to raise "consciousness [in the Dominican Republic]... would be like trying for cathedral ceilings in a tunnel".As one of the few Latin American students in her Catholic school, Alvarez faced discrimination because of her heritage. This caused her to turn inward and led to her fascination with literature, which she called "a portable homeland". She was encouraged by many of her teachers to pursue writing, and from a young age, was certain that this was what she wanted to do with her life. At the age of 13, her parents sent her to Abbot Academy, a boarding school, because the local schools were not considered sufficient. As a result, her relationship with her parents suffered, and was further strained when every summer she returned to the Dominican Republic to "reinforce their identities not only as Dominicans but also as proper young lady". These intermittent exchanges between countries informed her cultural understanding, the basis of many of her works.After graduating from Abbot Academy in 1967, she attended Connecticut College from 1967 to 1969 (where she won the Benjamin T. Marshall Poetry Prize) and then transferred to Middlebury College, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa (1971). She then received a master's degree from Syracuse University (1975). Career After acquiring a master's degree in 1975, Alvarez took a position as a writer-in-residence for the Kentucky Arts Commission. She traveled throughout the state visiting elementary schools, high schools, colleges and communities, conducting writing workshops and giving readings. She attributes these years with providing her a deeper understanding of America and helping her realize her passion for teaching. After her work in Kentucky, she extended her educational endeavors to California, Delaware, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and Illinois.Alvarez was a Visiting Assistant Professor of English for the University of Vermont, in Burlington, Vermont, for a two-year appointment in creative writing, 1981–83. She taught fiction and poetry workshops, introductory and advanced (for upperclassmen and graduate students) as well as a course on fiction (lecture format, 45 students).In addition to writing, Alvarez holds the position of writer-in-residence at Middlebury College, where she teaches creative writing on a part-time basis. Alvarez currently resides in the Champlain Valley in Vermont. She has served as a panelist, consultant, and editor, as a judge for literary awards such as the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award and the Casa de las Américas Prize, and also gives readings and lectures across the country. She and her partner, Bill Eichner, an ophthalmologist, created Alta Gracia, a farm-literacy center dedicated to the promotion of environmental sustainability and literacy and education worldwide. Alvarez and her husband purchased the farm in 1996 with the intent to promote cooperative and independent coffee-farming in the Dominican Republic. Alvarez is part of Border of Lights, an activist group that encourages positive relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Literary writing Alvarez is regarded as one of the most critically and commercially successful Latina writers of her time. Her published works include five novels, a book of essays, three collections of poetry, four children's books, and two works of adolescent fiction.Among her first published works were collections of poetry; The Homecoming, published in 1984, was expanded and republished in 1996. Poetry was Alvarez's first form of creative writing and she explains that her love for poetry has to do with the fact that "a poem is very intimate, heart-to-heart".Alvarez's poetry celebrates and questions nature and the rituals of family life, (including domestic chores) a theme in her well known poem "Dusting." Nuances of asphyxiated family life such.... Discover the Julia Alvarez popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Julia Alvarez books.

Best Seller Julia Alvarez Books of 2024

  • Una boda en Haiti synopsis, comments

    Una boda en Haiti

    Julia Alvarez

    En este relato íntimo y verdadero de una promesa cumplida, la aclamada novelista y poeta dominicana Julia Álvarez nos lleva en un viaje de experiencias que desafía la forma en...

  • A Greek Love synopsis, comments

    A Greek Love

    Zoe Valdes & David Frye

    For readers of Isabel Allende, Gabriela Garcia, and Julia Alvarez, the story of a woman who must fight for her love and her child in a Cuba suffocated by oppression A free spirit w...

  • The importance of language in cross-cultural identity production synopsis, comments

    The importance of language in cross-cultural identity production

    Michael Elberth

    At the centre of Julia Alvarez’s novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents stands the Dominican girl Yolanda, who moved to America as a youth. Since then, she has often been ba...

  • Reinbou synopsis, comments

    Reinbou

    Pedro Cabiya & Jessica Powell

    In the Time of the Butterflies meets Woman of Light in this propulsive work of historical fiction about U.S. intervention and corruption in the Dominican Republic.The basis of the ...

  • Their Dogs Came with Them synopsis, comments

    Their Dogs Came with Them

    Helena Maria Viramontes

    Helena Maria Viramontes brings 1960s Los Angeles to life with “terse, energetic, and vivid” (Publishers Weekly) prose in this story of a group of young Latinx women fighting to sur...

  • En el tiempo de las mariposas synopsis, comments

    En el tiempo de las mariposas

    Julia Alvarez

     “Un libro importante…Emocionalmente sobrecogedor. Alvarez nos hace un regalo cargado de rara generosidad y coraje.”The San Diego UnionTribune   Ellas eran lasa cuatro he...

  • Madrid Again synopsis, comments

    Madrid Again

    Soledad Maura

    A modernday bildungsroman, featuring a young woman on a quest to discover her family history as she is torn between the US and Spain, the old world and the new.  Tol...

  • Broken Paradise synopsis, comments

    Broken Paradise

    Cecilia Samartin

    In Broken Paradise Cecilia Samartin offers heart wrenching insight into the tender balance between hope and grief that shapes the immigrant heart and exposes the struggles of every...

  • It Occurs to Me That I Am America synopsis, comments

    It Occurs to Me That I Am America

    Jonathan Santlofer

    A provocative, unprecedented anthology featuring original short stories on what it means to be an American from thirty bestselling and awardwinning authors with an introduction by ...

  • El tiempo entre costuras synopsis, comments

    El tiempo entre costuras

    María Dueñas

    An outstanding success around the world, The Time in Between has sold more than two million copies and inspired the Spanish television series based on the book, dubbed by the media...

  • Once Upon a Quinceanera synopsis, comments

    Once Upon a Quinceanera

    Julia Alvarez

    Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a “phenomenal, indispensable” (USA Today) exploration of the Latina “sweet fifteen” celebration, by the bestselling author...

  • The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories synopsis, comments

    The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories

    Margaret Jull Costa, Thomas Bunstead, Peter Bush, Kathryn Phillips-Miles, Simon Deefholt & Kit Maude

    This exciting collection celebrates the richness and variety of the Spanish short story, from the nineteenth century to the present day.Featuring over fifty stories selected by rev...

  • Julia T. Alvarez v. Paul Paulus and Stover synopsis, comments

    Julia T. Alvarez v. Paul Paulus and Stover

    Supreme Court Of Utah

    WORTHEN, Justice. Appeal from a verdict in favor of defendant in an action to recover damages for the death of plaintiff's daughter when struck by defendant's truck. The...

  • The Neapolitan Sisters synopsis, comments

    The Neapolitan Sisters

    Margo Candela

    2023 International Latino Book Award WinnerA TODAY.COM MOST ANTICIPATED LATINX BOOK OF 2022!Three sisters. Three vastly different lives. A maelstrom of family secrets. For fans of ...

  • Together in a Sudden Strangeness synopsis, comments

    Together in a Sudden Strangeness

    Alice Quinn

    In this urgent outpouring of American voices, our poets speak to us as they shelter in place, addressing our collective fear, grief, and hope from eloquent and diverse individual p...

  • Return to Sender synopsis, comments

    Return to Sender

    Julia Alvarez

    After Tyler's father is injured in a tractor accident, his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn’ t sure what to make of ...

  • Daughters of Latin America synopsis, comments

    Daughters of Latin America

    Sandra Guzmán

    Spanning time, styles, and traditions, a dazzling collection of essential works from 140 Latine writers, scholars, and activists from across the worldfrom warrior poet Audre Lorde ...