Julia Alvarez
1950-
Immigrant Experience In 1960, when she was just ten years old, Julia Alvarez was forced to
leave her homeland. Like the characters in "Daughter of Invention," she and her family immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic. Adapting to a new culture was a difficult adjustment. In the Dominican Republic, Alvarez was an outgoing child and had many friends. As a recent immigrant in New York City, she felt out of place and was sometimes the victim of insensitive name-calling by non-Hispanic children. It was at this time that Alvarez began to write, finding comfort in using her new language, English, to write down memories of her old life in the Dominican Republic. Her lifelong interest in writing began with a school assignment and encouragement from a teacher.
College Experience Alvarez studied writing and literature in college and later taught those same subjects. She received a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College in Vermont and a master's degree from Syracuse University in New York. She has taught at several different universities, including the University of Illinois and Middlebury College.
Literary Success Alvarez has won many awards for her writing, which includes novels and poetry as well as short stories. Her fiction often centers around the grim political history of the Dominican Republic as well as the experiences of Hispanic immigrants in New York City. Both her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.
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