Ask the Author: Julia Alvarez
Answered Questions (21)
Julia Alvarez
Hello Francisco, thank you for writing! I'm sorry but I am not taking on any new authors for now. I have had serious visual difficulties, so must limit my reading time. Best of luck with your second book of poetry. Keep writing!
Sincerely, Julia
Sincerely, Julia
Julia Alvarez
Julia regrets not being able to oblige. She recently had two major eye surgeries and has lost vision in one eye. Her reading time is limited and stamina compromised.
Best of luck, Bill
Best of luck, Bill
Julia Alvarez
You can tell Edgar that what I do—and it might not work for everyone—is immerse myself in the story and in my characters and that’s where I center my focus. Also, it helps to access your own self as the age group you are writing for. What would captivate you at seven, at seventeen, at seventy. What I do not find helpful is always thinking about my audience, what will sell, what they want to hear. Then you sell your characters and story short—and they do not appreciate this! Good luck with your own lived answer to this question, because remember, what works for one writer might not work for another! Julia
Julia Alvarez
You can answer her:
You can tell Jessica that any writing—even in a journal—done consistently –building up the “habit of writing”—will help her become a better writer. It’s like a dancer or acrobat, the more you practice the craft, the closer you are to making it art. Building the muscles of writing, think of it that way. The vitamins and smoothies are reading. Read, read, read—you learn from the best writers by absorption. Okay, that’s enough homework for the new year. Good luck, Julia
You can tell Jessica that any writing—even in a journal—done consistently –building up the “habit of writing”—will help her become a better writer. It’s like a dancer or acrobat, the more you practice the craft, the closer you are to making it art. Building the muscles of writing, think of it that way. The vitamins and smoothies are reading. Read, read, read—you learn from the best writers by absorption. Okay, that’s enough homework for the new year. Good luck, Julia
Julia Alvarez
Dear Sophia, Sorry to report that Julia has had a setback, two major eye surgeries resulting in loss of vision in one eye, and continuing double vision her doctors are still trying to address. By way of saying that she has had to cut back on commitments she slowly learns to adapt to this handicap. She is forced to prioritize her available reading time to finishing her new novel and honoring a few endorsements she had promised before this setback. Apologies she cannot be of help to you. And she says to be sure to express how sorry she is for your loss. A great way to honor your father’s legacy is to create more beauty in this world that has lost him. Bill, in Julia’s behalf
Julia Alvarez
Stay tuned. Surprises ahead!
Julia Alvarez
Dear David, I don’t do my own promotion—my publisher (Algoqnuin) and my trusty agent do the heavy lifting. I’ve hired an IT helper to post for me. In my limited time, I want to focus on my writing. . . and my life!
Julia Alvarez
Dear Jeanette,
This is Bill, Julia’s husband. Julia had a setback last fall, which involved two major eye surgeries, and loss of vision in the eye, with resulting double vision. She doesn’t want to burden you with her grim news, but she has had to curtail the reading and writing she does do, which includes trying to finish a novel due soon. So she sends her regrets and good wishes.Thanks for your understanding, Bill
Dear Jeanette,
This is Bill, Julia’s husband. Julia had a setback last fall, which involved two major eye surgeries, and loss of vision in the eye, with resulting double vision. She doesn’t want to burden you with her grim news, but she has had to curtail the reading and writing she does do, which includes trying to finish a novel due soon. So she sends her regrets and good wishes.Thanks for your understanding, Bill
Julia Alvarez
Julia’s agent says: Great work can overcome any bias, but sure, publishers are looking for the shiny and new. I’ve been told "it’s easier to promote a debut novelist than a writer with a middling track record." But it’s also true that it has always been hard to find an agent and good books are always challenging to sell. If the work is great, it will find a way. One has to believe this or there’s no way forward.
Julia Alvarez
Many personal experiences--life itself--all lead to stories.
Julia Alvarez
Good for you! It must be a good book.
Julia Alvarez
I write to learn things. Writing is a discipline for every day--no choice!
Julia Alvarez
Dear Farzaneh, Much as I would like to accept your offer, I cannot, due to recent major eye surgery. So sorry! Good luck with "Migrating Birds"
Julia Alvarez
You may contact the Vermont Bookstore, Middlebury, Vermont, to order the book. When you order, ask the staff to have your book signed to "Carmen" before they send it to you. I hope your friend will forgive you when you give her a new, signed copy!
Julia Alvarez
In keeping with Mr. Johnson's commandment, see my advice to aspiring writers, I write every day—or try to. But I don’t know where I’m going till I get there. If I give you a destination or set up the parameters of the work by describing it, I’ve already contained it in my idea of it. So I’m letting myself play and wander and wonder over stories in my family’s past, stories in the past of my native country (Dominican Republic), the narrative ties that bind us all into blood families, nations, human family. That about covers the whole map! Additionally, I’m not just interested in content, but also in how a story can get told in ways that surprise. I remember my astonishment reading Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic and realizing the effectiveness of writing a novel in the first person plural point of view and in small vignettes. More recently, I’ve been dazzled by Colum McCann’s Apeirogon, and its almost Scheherazadian way of telling a story in 1001 small narratives, with "everything" thrown in and, amazingly, everything fits. . .
Julia Alvarez
Like my character, Antonia, I struggle with that balance, and I often get it wrong, going too far in one or the other direction, and needing to--as with Antonia--recalculate. I do know that we don't need to build another wall, one dividing art and activism. Doing what we love and doing it in service to our communities is the most profound and transformative activism. (Howard Thurman, the Civil Rights activist, once remarked: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
I am also well aware that having that choice is a privilege, one that is denied you if you live in the "wrong body" (in terms of gender, race, class) or in oppressive regimes which we, Americans, can no longer think of as happening over there in other countries only. So, part of the struggle is to create communities that allow for this choice, as it shouldn't be a privilege but a right: the right to be fully human! And while this lack of equality exists, we are bound to address it.
Let me end with another favorite quote, this from the incomparable Toni Morrison: The function of freedom is to free someone else. If I'm going to get the balance wrong, I'd much rather "err" on the side of generosity.
I am also well aware that having that choice is a privilege, one that is denied you if you live in the "wrong body" (in terms of gender, race, class) or in oppressive regimes which we, Americans, can no longer think of as happening over there in other countries only. So, part of the struggle is to create communities that allow for this choice, as it shouldn't be a privilege but a right: the right to be fully human! And while this lack of equality exists, we are bound to address it.
Let me end with another favorite quote, this from the incomparable Toni Morrison: The function of freedom is to free someone else. If I'm going to get the balance wrong, I'd much rather "err" on the side of generosity.
Julia Alvarez
Reading, reading, reading. . . I always say if my reading isn’t going well, my writing won’t either. Reading poetry to start the writing day is especially effective for me. If a poet is really good, I feel the mystery stirring in me again, the faith confirmed that language can be used to get hold of what can't be put into words! Then, like that kid who doesn't want to go inside at the end of the day, I want to “stay” in that space that language can create, and the only way to stay there is to write, write, write, losing myself in the writing.
Julia Alvarez
I do have siblings, three sisters--an all-female family. Maybe because of that, I've always been drawn to stories in which there are strong bonds between women, whether of blood or friendship. My first novel How The García Girls Lost Their Accents, as well as its sequel, ¡YO!, focus on the four García sisters, and In The Time Of The Butterflies is about the four historical sisters, the Mirabals. As a young reader, my favorite books were the Arabian Nights, in which Scheherazade and her sister, Dunyazad, work together to enthrall the cruel sultan with stories, and also Little Women, about four sisters, very much like my own family. Those powerful bonds of blood or friendship were what allow so many women to survive and thrive in the oppressive regimes they found themselves. That said, I don't want to airbrush "the sisterhood" and make it all about how wonderful and empowering such covens can be--they are also riddled with competition, conflict, grievances--and I can attest to that in my own life and in my novel! Especially in a Latina sisterhood, we don't have "pelos en la lengua," we don't hold back when we have something to say. The sparks fly, but they also create a bonfire by which we can sit, feel warmed, tell our stories.
Julia Alvarez
I'm afraid that Antonia has inherited the literary DNA of her creator! I, too, have stories, poems that are my "string in the labyrinth" and help me navigate my way. Many times a poem or passage reminds me of what I would otherwise forget. I don't mean "facts," but something more elusive, vital, and necessary. Certain poems and stories help me when I am feeling lost, disheartened, and in despair. I think of them as food for the soul, the fuel that runs my life. But most of all I feel accompanied by certain poems and stories. I feel less alone, and that is a great comfort, especially in dark times.
Julia Alvarez
“IF” I could travel. . .? I do travel all the time to any fictional book world I want, many times over. Every time I fall in love with a book and become absorbed in it, I enter its world and I don’t want to leave! Sometimes I slow down, count the pages till the end, not wanting to go back to "the real world," like a kid begging for just five more minutes outside as the day is ending before having to come in. . .
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