Alvarez, Julia 1950-

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Alvarez, Julia 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born March 27, 1950, in New York, NY; married Bill Eichner (a physician and farmer), June 3, 1989; children: a stepdaughter. Education: Attended Connecticut College, 1967-69; Middlebury College, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1971; Syracuse University, M.F.A., 1975; attended Bread Loaf School of English, 1979-80.

ADDRESSES:

Home—VT. Agent—Susan Bergholz Literary Services, 17 W. 10th St., No. 5B, New York, NY 10011-8769.

CAREER:

Writer and educator. Poet-in-the-Schools in KY, DE, and NC, 1975-78; Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, MA, instructor in English, 1979-81; University of Vermont, Burlington, visiting assistant professor of creative writing, 1981-83; George Washington University, Washington, DC, Jenny McKean Moore Visiting Writer, 1984-85; University of Illinois at Urbana, assistant professor of English, 1986-88; Middlebury Col- lege, Middlebury, VT, associate professor, 1988-96, professor of English, 1996-98, writer-in-residence, 1998—. Owner of Café Alta Gracia, an organic coffee farm in the Dominican Republic.

MEMBER:

PEN (National Members Council, 1997-99), Sigma Tau Delta (honorary member).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Benjamin T. Marshall Poetry Prize, Connecticut College, 1968 and 1969; prize from Academy of American Poetry, 1974; creative writing fellowship, Syracuse University, 1974-75; Kenan grant, Phillips Andover Academy, 1980; poetry award, La Reina Press, 1982; exhibition grant, Vermont Arts Council, 1984-85; Robert Frost Poetry fellowship, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1986; Third Woman Press Award, first prize in narrative, 1986; award for younger writers, General Electric Foundation, 1986; National Endowment for the Arts grant, 1987-88; syndicated fiction prize, PEN, for "Snow"; grant from Ingram Merrill Foundation, 1990; Josephine Miles Award, PEN Oakland, 1991, notable book designation, American Library Association, 1992, and "Twenty-one Classics for the Twenty-first Century" designation, New York Librarians, all for How the García Girls Lost Their Accents; notable book designation, 1994, American Library Association; National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, 1995; Best Books for Young Adults designation, 1995, American Library Association, all for In the Time of the Butterflies; Jessica Nobel-Maxwell Poetry Prize, 1995, American Poetry Review; Doctor of Humane Letters, City University of New York, John Jay College, 1996; Alumni Achievement Award, 1996, Middlebury College; Dominican Republic Annual Book Fair, 1997, dedicated to Alvarez's body of work; selected "Woman of the Year," Latina Magazine, 2000; Sor Juana Award, 2002; Hispanic Heritage Award, Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation, 2002; Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, 2002, and Pura Belpré Award, American Library Association, 2004, both for Before We Were Free.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 1991.

In the Time of the Butterflies, Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 1994.

¡Yo!, Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 1997.

In the Name of Salomé, Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 2000.

Finding Miracles, Knopf (New York, NY), 2004.

Saving the World, Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 2006.

POETRY

(Editor) Old Age Ain't for Sissies, Crane Creek Press (Sanford, NC), 1979.

The Housekeeping Book, illustrations by Carol MacDonald and Rene Schall, Burlington (Burlington, VT), 1984.

Homecoming: New and Selected Poems, Grove Press (New York, NY), 1984, revised edition, Plume (New York, NY), 1996.

The Other Side/El Otro Lado, Dutton (New York, NY), 1995.

Seven Trees, Kat Ran Press (North Andover, MA), 1998.

The Woman I Kept to Myself, Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 2004.

OTHER

Something to Declare (essays), Algonquin Books (Chapel Hill, NC), 1998.

The Secret Footprints (picture book), illustrations by Fabian Negrin, Knopf (New York, NY), 2000.

How Tía Lola Came to Stay (juvenile), Knopf (New York, NY), 2001.

A Cafecito Story, Chelsea Green Publishers (White River Junction, VT), 2001, bilingual edition published as A Cafecito Story/El cuento del cafecito, Chelsea Green Publishers (White River Junction, VT), 2002.

Before We Were Free (young adult), Knopf (New York, NY), 2002.

A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia (children's book), illustrated by Beatriz Vidal, Knopf (New York, NY), 2005.

Once Upon a Quinceañera, Viking (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to anthologies, including The One You Call Sister: New Women's Fiction, edited by Paula Martinac, Cleis Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1989; The Best AmericanPoetry 1991, edited by David Lehman, Scribner (New York, NY), 1991; Poems for a Small Planet: Contemporary American Nature Poetry, edited by Robert Pack and Jay Parini, Middlebury College Press (Middlebury, VT), 1993; Mondo Barbie, edited by Lucinda Ebersole and Richard Peabody, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1993; Growing up Female: Short Stories by Women Writers from the American Mosaic, edited by Susan Cahill, Penguin (New York, NY), 1993; A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women, edited by Annie Finch, Story Line Press, 1994; and New Writing from the Caribbean, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1994. Contributor of fiction to periodicals, including Caribbean Writer, Commonwoman, Greensboro Review, High Plains Literary Review, Green Mountain Review, New Mexico Humanities Review, Story, and Syracuse Magazine. Contributor of poetry to periodicals, including Barataria Review, Burlington Review, Caribbean Writer, Florilegia, George Washington Review, Green Mountain Review, Helicon Nine, Jar, Kentucky Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Latinos in the U.S. Review, Poetry, Poetry Miscellany, Wind, and Womanspirit. Contributor of translations to Barataria Review, Bitter Oleander, Pan American Review, Pulse: The Lamar Review, and Tower. Editor of Special Reports/Ecology, 1971.

ADAPTATIONS:

In the Time of the Butterflies was adapted as a television movie starring Salma Hayek for Showtime, 2001; Finding Miracles was adapted for audio, Listening Library/Books on Tape, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Julia Alvarez, who was born in New York City but raised until the age of ten in the Dominican Republic, is a distinguished novelist and poet. Alvarez was forced to flee with her family from the Dominican Republic in 1960 after the discovery of her father's involvement in a plot to overthrow dictator Rafael Trujillo. Since that time she has lived in the United States, but has retained ties to the Dominican Republic and visits the nation frequently. Much of her fiction and poetry can be viewed as semi-autobiographical, dealing both with the immigrant experience and bicultural identity. Seattle Times reporter Irene Wanner described Alvarez as "a lyrical writer with passions for individuals, particularly women, who affect history. Her chosen but difficult genre is intensely rewarding."

Alvarez's first book-length work of fiction, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, is often referred to as a novel. Actually, it consists of fifteen interrelated stories detailing the experiences of four sisters and their family both before and after their exile from the Dominican Republic, and their subsequent life in New York City. The book begins with a series of episodes in which the sisters are already Americanized: sex and drugs and mental breakdowns all figure into life as the girls live it in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The book's central portion concerns the difficult periods of adjustment experienced by the García sisters while growing up as immigrants in vast, fast-paced New York City. It closes with a collection of tales recalling the way of life experienced by the sisters while youngsters, both in the Dominican Republic and as newcomers to the United States. Donna Rifkind, writing in the New York Times Book Review, noted that the volume's reverse chronology constitutes "a shrewd idea," and she declared that Alvarez has "beautifully captured the threshold experiences of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory and the future remains an anxious dream." At the same time, Rifkind felt that the depiction of the four sisters' experiences in the United States is less successful and that "Alvarez has not yet quite found a voice." Stephen Henighan in the Toronto Globe and Mail characterized How the García Girls Lost Their Accents as a "humane, gracefully written novel."

In her second novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, Alvarez recalls a grim incident in Dominican history: the untimely deaths in 1960 of three sisters—the Mirabals—who had denounced Rafael Trujillo's dictatorship. Alvarez chooses to portray these events from a subjective fictional perspective rather than as historical biography. According to Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, writing in the New York Times Book Review, "by dealing with real historical figures in this novel, Ms. Alvarez has been much more ambitious than she was in her first, as if she needed to have her American self learn what it was really like in her native land." In the Time of the Butterflies is constructed in four sections, one for each of the dead sisters and one for their surviving sibling. It is through the surviving sister that the reader obtains background on the others; she recalls their love affairs and marriages as well as the activist actions that led to their deaths. Nation contributor Ilan Stavans stated that, although Alvarez's subject matter is not unique, "her pen lends it an authenticity and sense of urgency seldom found elsewhere." Stavans went on to deem In the Time of the Butterflies "enchanting" and added that the book serves as "a wonderful examination of how it feels to be a survivor." Progressive contributor Elizabeth Martinez commented that Alvarez "moves [her] characters forward in the shadow of impending doom, yet never victimizes, never negates human complexity." Although Elsa Walsh noted in the Washington Post Book World that In the Time of the Butterflies is not without flaws—Trujillo is depicted only as a caricature—she praised the novel as "at once personal and political, both sweet and sweeping in scale."

In Alvarez's third novel, ¡Yo!, the author returns to the four sisters portrayed in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. The title of the book is a triple-entendre. "Yo" is Spanish for "I"; it is a call for attention, and it is also the nickname of the book's central character, Yolanda García. Like Alvarez herself, Yolanda has become a successful novelist who bases much of her fiction on her own life experiences. However, it is not Yolanda who tells the story in ¡Yo!, but rather the people who have known her. Each of the sixteen chapters in the novel presents the voice of a different character, including Yolanda's sisters, her parents, a former professor, her husband, a lover, and even an obsessed fan. A Publishers Weekly contributor found ¡Yo! to be a "splendid sequel" to How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, and observed that "Alvarez's command of Latino voices has always been impeccable, but here she is equally adept at conveying the personalities of a geographically diverse group of Americans."

In the Name of Salomé is in many ways Alvarez's most ambitious work of fiction. Based on the historical figures Salomé Ureña and her daughter, Camila, the novel explores the lives of two women dedicated to revolutionary causes and the bond between them that exists despite the mother's early death. Salomé is a Dominican political poet of national stature; Camila is a college professor at Vassar whose ties to the Caribbean are enhanced by her attempts to put her mother's papers in order. The story spans a century, alternating between Salomé's first-person recollections and Camila's third-person, reverse chronological narrative. "It's this long view, this hundred-year reach, that makes In the Name of Salomé original and illuminating," maintained Suzanne Ruta in the New York Times Book Review. Ruta added that the book, despite its anecdotal nature, "delivers a strong sense of who these people were." Christian Science Monitor contributor Kendra Nordin wrote: "This novel gives the impression of sitting at the feet of an old woman recounting her long life in jumbled order, but with emphasis on important moments, passionate impressions, wisdom learned and shared."

Alvarez's poetry has also received considerable critical attention. Homecoming: New and Selected Poems combines a series of poems about the everyday chores of housekeeping with forty-one autobiographical sonnets. "This vivid and engaging collection proves [Alvarez] to be a talented poet," noted Christine Stenstrom in Library Journal. Another collection of poetry, The Other Side/El Otro Lado, is titled after its centerpiece, a twenty-one-canto poem about Alvarez's residency at a Dominican artists' colony and her experiences with the people she meets in a nearby fishing village. Sandra M. Gilbert, writing in Poetry, stated: "A novelist as well as a poet, Alvarez produces memoristic narratives in a range of sometimes quite complex forms along with prose poems, love poems, and elegiac lyrics."

In The Woman I Kept to Myself, Alvarez "writes candidly of epic concerns and everyday realities in this unfailingly lucid collection of autobiographical poems," according to Donna Seaman in Booklist. Discussing the work on her Home page, Alvarez stated: "For me, poetry is that cutting edge of the self, the part which moves out into experience ahead of every other part of the self. It's a way of saying what can't be put into words, our deepest and most secret and yet most universal feelings."

In 2000 Alvarez produced her first work for young readers, a picture book titled The Secret Footprints. She followed that with the middle-grade reader How Tía Lola Came to Stay, about a young Dominican boy who experiences culture shock when his family moves from New York City to Vermont. In School Library Journal, Maria Otero-Boisvert remarked: "Alvarez does an excellent job of capturing the social unease of the child of immigrants who is unsure of where he belongs." Before We Were Free, a young adult novel, focuses on the life of Anita, a twelve-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic under the Trujillo regime. When Anita's father is arrested for plotting to overthrow the dictator, the girl and her mother are forced into hiding. According to Lauren Adams in Horn Book, Before We Were Free, is "a realistic and compelling account of a girl growing up too quickly while coming to terms with the cost of freedom." For the work, Alvarez received the 2004 Pura Belpré Award.

In her review of In the Time of the Butterflies, Washington Post Book World contributor Elsa Walsh declared that the versatile Alvarez has joined "a growing list of ethnic writers breaking into mainstream American literature, but as with the best and most authentic side of diversity, her voice is a universal one." Insisting that "the experience of enduring the disorientations of learning a new culture" informs all of Alvarez's work, New York Times Book Review correspondent Christina Cho commended the author for a "graceful fusion of lush imagery and poetic economy."

Alvarez has continued to produce a wide range of literature, including novels, children's books, and nonfiction. In her novel Finding Miracles, the author features Milly Kaufman, an adopted fifteen-year-old who was born in the Dominican Republic and now lives in Vermont. When another refugee family from her same home town moves to her area, Milly forms a friendship with Pablo Bolivar and his family. Milly eventually goes with them on vacation to their mutual homeland, now safe since political reforms have taken place. Once there, a romance blossoms between Milly and Pablo. "Alvarez is adept at developing characters that are believable and memorable," wrote Claire Rosser in Kliatt. "She also creates perfectly the reality of a small country slowly recovering from … civil war and tyranny."

A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia is a children's book illustrated by Beatriz Vidal. The story surrounds a legend involving the Virgin Mary, who is known as Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia in the Dominican Republic. When the family olive farm appears to be failing and young Maria learns about their plight, she has a dream in which Altagracia appears in a prosperous orange grove. Maria and her family take it as a sign that they should try to grow oranges, a favorite of Maria's father when he lived in Spain. Karin Snelson, writing in Booklist, noted that "this talented team evokes an enchanted, sun-kissed world where dreams, and gratitude, bear fruit."

Alvarez tells two connected stories that take place more than 200 years apart in her novel Saving the World. The modern story features writer Alma Huebner, a Latina who is suffering from writer's block and who learns that her husband may have gotten AIDS from a previous lover. As she tries to finish her fictionalized account of a smallpox vaccine brought to Latin America, the reader learns of the story of Isabel, a director of an 1803 Spanish orphanage that is providing twenty-two children as carriers of the vaccine. "The similarities between the alternating stories are subtly and delicately drawn, rich in detail and nuance," wrote Nola Theiss in Kliatt. Women's Review of Books contributor Marie Elise Wheatwind commented: "Ultimately, who but Julia Alvarez could give us this poetically crafted, carefully researched, and empathically imagined work of fiction?"

In her 2007 nonfiction book, Once Upon a Quinceañera, the author writes about parties given in Latin America to mark a girl's right of passage into womanhood at the age of fifteen. The author explores the history of these parties and attends several given in the United States, where they have become popular among Latino communities.

Alvarez once commented: "I think of myself at ten years old, newly arrived in this country, feeling out of place, feeling that I would never belong in this world of United States of Americans who were so different from me. Back home in the Dominican Republic, I had been an active, lively child, a bad student full of fun with plentiful friends. In New York City I was suddenly thrown back on myself. I looked around the schoolyard at unfriendly faces. A few of the boys called me a name. I didn't know what it meant, but I knew it couldn't be anything good from the ugly looks on their faces.

"And then, magic happened in my life. I didn't even recognize it as magic until years later: it looked like schoolwork, a writing assignment. An English teacher asked us to write little stories about ourselves. I began to put into words some of what my life had been like in the Dominican Republic. Stories about my gang of cousins and the smell of mangoes and the iridescent, vibrating green of hummingbirds. Since it was my own little world I was making with words, I could put what I wanted in it. I could make things up. If I needed more yellow in that mango, I could put it in. Set amapola blooming in January. Make the sun shine on a cloudy day. If I needed to make a cousin taller, I could make her grow two inches with an adjective so she could reach that ripe yellow mango on the tree. The boys in the schoolyard with ugly looks on their faces were not allowed into this world. I could save what I didn't want to lose—memories and smells and sounds, things too precious to put anywhere else.

"I found myself turning more and more to writing as the one place where I felt I belonged and could make sense of myself, my life, all that was happening to me. I realized that I had lost the island we had come from, but with the words and encouragement of my teacher, I had discovered an even better world: the one words can create in a story or poem. ‘Language is the only homeland,’ the exiled Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz, has said. And that was where I landed when we left the Dominican Republic, not in the United States but in the English language."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 93, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.

Dictionary of Hispanic Biography, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 282: New Formalist Poets, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2003.

Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd edition, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Notable Hispanic American Women, 2nd edition, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Novels for Students, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 5, 1999, Volume 9, 2000.

PERIODICALS

Americas, March, 1995, Barbara Mujica, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 60; January, 2001, Ben Jacques, "Julia Alvarez: Real Flights of Imagination," p. 22, and Barbara Mujica, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 60; July-August, 2006, Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez, review of Saving the World, p. 62; March 1, 2007, Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez, "Julia Alvarez: Progenitor of a Movement: This Dominican-American Writer Weaves Passionate Sensibilities through Her Works with the Gift of Seeing through Others' Eyes," p. 6.

Antioch Review, summer, 1991, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, pp. 474-475.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 23, 2003, Teresa K. Weaver, "Books: Writer Alvarez's ‘Rays of Light’ Sometimes Irritate the Powerful," p. C1.

Belles Lettres, spring, 1995, Janet Jones Hampton, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, pp. 6-7.

Bilingual Review, January-April, 2001, Ricardo Castells, "The Silence of Exile in How the García Girls Lost Their Accents," pp. 34-42.

Black Issues Book Review, March, 2001, Milca Esdaille, "Same Trip, Different Ships," p. 40.

Booklist, July, 1994, Brad Hooper, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 1892; September 15, 1996, Brad Hooper, review of ¡Yo!, p. 180; August, 1998, Donna Seaman, review of Something to Declare, p. 1952; March 15, 2000, Veronica Scrol, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 1292; August, 2000, Connie Fletcher, review of The Secret Footprints, p. 2143, and Isabel Schon, reviews of In the Time of the Butterflies and ¡Yo!, p. 2154; February 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of How Tía Lola Came to Stay, p. 1138; August, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of Before We Were Free, p. 1945; March 1, 2004, Donna Seaman, review of The Woman I Kept to Myself, p. 1126; September 15, 2005, Karin Snelson, review of A Gift of Gracias: The Legend of Altagracia, p. 70.

bookWOMEN, October-November, 2002, "Beyond Words."

Boston Globe, June 28, 2000, Vanessa E. Jones, "Writing Her Book of High Grace."

Callaloo, summer, 2000, William Luis, review of "A Search for Identity in Julia Alvarez's How the García Girls Lost Their Accents," p. 839.

Christian Science Monitor, October 17, 1994, Katherine A. Powers, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 13; October 29, 1998, Kendra Nordin, review of Something to Declare, p. B7; July 6, 2000, Kendra Nordin, "Recalling the Dreams of a Caribbean Past."

Commonweal, April 10, 1992, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, pp. 23-25.

E, May-June, 2002, Starre Vartan, review of A Cafecito Story, p. 60.

Entertainment Weekly, August 14, 1992, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 56.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), August 31, 1991, Stephen Henighan, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. C6.

Hispanic, June, 1991, David D. Medina, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 55; December, 1994, Mary Bats Estrada, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 82; March, 1997, Monica Hsu, review of ¡Yo!, pp. 68-69.

Horn Book, September-October, 2002, Lauren Adams, review of Before We Were Free, pp. 563-565.

Intertexts, spring, 1999, Ibis Gomez-Vega, "Hating the Self in the ‘Other’ or How Yolanda Learns to See Her Own Kind in Julia Alvarez's How the García Girls Lost Their Accents," pp. 85-98.

Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, March, 2003, Susan Carlile, review of How Tía Lola Came to Stay, p. 528.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2002, review of Before We Were Free, p. 876; January 15, 2006, review of Saving the World, p. 51; May 1, 2007, review of Once Upon a Quinceañera.

Kliatt, July, 2006, Claire Rosser, review of Finding Miracles, p. 16; January, 2007, Nola Theiss, review of Saving the World, p. 42.

Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, August 9, 2000, Mary Ann Horne, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. K3161.

Lambda Book Report, October, 2000, Karen Helfrich, "Living in the Shadows," p. 28.

Latin American Literature and Arts Review, Volume 54, 1997, Heather Rosaria-Sievert, "Conversation with Julia Alvarez," pp. 31-37.

Library Journal, May 1, 1991, Ann H. Fisher, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 102; April 1, 1996, Christine Stenstrom, review of Homecoming: New and Selected Poems, p. 84; October 1, 1996, Janet Ingraham, review of ¡Yo!, p. 124; August, 1998, Nancy Shires, review of Something to Declare, p. 88; July, 1999, review of ¡Yo!, p. 76; May 1, 2000, Eleanor J. Bader, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 151; September 1, 2000, "Noah's Ark Choices," p. 168; February 15, 2004, Diane Scharper, review of The Woman I Kept to Myself, pp. 129-130.

Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1997, Maria Elena Fernandez, "Two Sides of an American Identity," p. E1.

Melus, spring, 1998, Julie Barak, "‘Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre’: A Second Coming into Language in Julia Alvarez's How the García Girls Lost Their Accents," p. 159; winter, 2002, Charlotte Rich, "Talking Back to El Jefe: Genre, Polyphony, and Dialogic Resistance in Julia Alvarez's In the Time of Butterflies," pp. 165-184; winter, 2003, Catherine E. Wall, "Bilingualism and Identity in Julia Alvarez's Poem ‘Bilingual Siesta’," pp. 125-144.

Mosaic, June, 2003, Kelli Lyon Johnson, "Both sides of the Massacre: Collective Memory and Narrative on Hispaniola," pp. 75-91.

Ms., September-October, 1994, Ava Roth, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, pp. 79-80; March-April, 1997, Julie Phillips, review of ¡Yo!, p. 82; August-September, 2000, Dylan Siegler, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 85.

Nation, November 7, 1994, Ilan Stavans, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, pp. 552-556.

Newsweek, April 20, 1992, Susan Miller, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 78; October 17, 1994, Susan Miller, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, pp. 77-78.

New York Times Book Review, October 6, 1991, Donna Rifkind, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 14; December 18, 1994, Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 28; July 15, 1995, Philip Gambone, review of The Other Side/El Otro Lado, p. 20; February 9, 1997, Abby Frucht, review of ¡Yo!, p. 19; September 20, 1998, Christina Cho, review of Something to Declare; July 16, 2000, Suzanne Ruta, "Daughters of Revolution," p. 24; December 2, 2001, Linnea Lannon, review of How Tía Lola Came to Stay, p. 83.

People, January 20, 1997, Clare McHugh, review of ¡Yo!, p. 33; September 21, 1998, Laura Jamison, review of Something to Declare, p. 49.

Poetry, August, 1996, Sandra M. Gilbert, review of The Other Side/El Otro Lado, p. 285.

Postscript, Volume 16, 1999, Richard Vela, "Daughter of Invention: The Poetry of Julia Alvarez," pp. 33-42.

Prairie Schooner, summer, 2000, Maria Garcia Tabor, "The Truth according to Your Characters," pp. 151-156.

Progressive, July, 1995, Elizabeth Martinez, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 39.

Publishers Weekly, April 5, 1991, Sybil Steinberg, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 133; July 11, 1994, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 62; April 24, 1995, p. 65; March 18, 1996, review of Homecoming, p. 67; October 14, 1996, review of ¡Yo!, p. 62; December 16, 1996, Jonathan Bing, "Julia Alvarez: Books That Cross Borders," p. 38; July 13, 1998, review of Something to Declare, p. 67; May 15, 2000, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 86; August 14, 2000, review of The Secret Footprints, p. 354; February 26, 2001, review of How Tía Lola Came to Stay, p. 87; July 22, 2002, review of Before We Were Free, p. 180; March 22, 2004, review of The Woman I Kept to Myself, p. 82.

Quill and Quire, May, 2000, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 23.

San Francisco Chronicle, February 5, 1997, Patricia Holt, "Reality Continues in Fiction in Yo, "p. E1.

School Library Journal, September 1, 1991, Pam Spencer, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 292; April, 1997, Dottie Kraft, review of ¡Yo!, p. 166; April, 1999, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Something to Declare, p. 162; September, 2000, Barbara Scotto, review of TheSecret Footprints, p. 213; April, 2002, Maria Otero-Boisvert, review of How Tía Lola Came to Stay, p. S63; August, 2002, Kathleen Isaacs, review of Before We Were Free, p. 182.

Seattle Times, July 23, 2000, Irene Wanner, review of In the Name of Salomé.

Sojourners, May, 2001, Jim Wallis, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 53.

USA Today Magazine, March, 1999, Steven G. Kellman, review of Something to Declare, p. 80.

Washington Post Book World, November 27, 1994, Elsa Walsh, "Arms and the Women," p. 7; January 19, 1997, p. 9; June 11, 2000, Joanne Omang, "Revolutionary Fervor," p. X03.

Women's Review of Books, May, 1995, Ruth Behar, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, pp. 6-7; November, 1998, Rosellen Brown, review of Something to Declare, pp. 7-8; September, 2002, Judith Grossman, "La musa de la patria," p. 5; September-October, 2006, Marie-Elise Wheatwind, "Casualties of Salvation," review of Saving the World, p. 14, and Marie-Elise Wheatwind, "The Carrier of the Story: A Conversation with Julia Alvarez," p. 16.

Women's Studies, February, 2000, Shara McCallum, "Reclaiming Julia Alvarez: In the Time of the Butterflies," pp. 93-117.

World & I, December, 2000, Linda Simon, "Poetry and Patria: In Her Fourth Novel, Alvarez Explores Personal and Political Exigencies in the Lives of Two Passionate Women," pp. 232-236; November, 2002, Linda Simon, "Mixed Breed—A Profile of Julia Alvarez."

World Literature Today, summer, 1992, review of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, p. 516; autumn, 1995, Kay Pritchett, review of In the Time of the Butterflies, p. 789; autumn, 1997, Cynthia Tompkins, review of ¡Yo!, p. 785; winter, 2001, Fernardo Valerio-Holguin, review of In the Name of Salomé, p. 113.