Celebrating Julia Alvarez, UNC's new writer-in-residence

The Department of English and Comparative Literature hosted Julia Alvarez, the 2018 Frank B. Hanes writer-in-residence, for the annual reading on Tuesday at the Genome Science Building Auditorium.

“Alvarez fiction is filled with courage, bravery — especially the bravery of a Latina woman,” said Marianne Gingher, a professor in the creative writing program who introduced the author.

Alvarez was presented with the National Medal of Arts in 2013 by former President Barack Obama. She has garnered several accolades for her books, poetry collections and essays, including the Américas Awards and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. 

Alvarez read an excerpt of a book she’s been working on for the past four years, which, after many considerations, she's titling "Fluency." 

During her presentation, she emphasized how intriguing she finds the “undocumented losses” of immigration, like fluency in a language and consequently, the ability and privilege to communicate and express oneself.

“It is a beautiful book, well-worth your time to read, once it gets written for you to buy,” she said, jokingly.

She explained that the book touches on grieving and mourning. It features a character based on her father, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who arrived in the United States after joining secret efforts to overthrow the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo more than 50 years ago. 

Hundreds of students, staff and faculty members attended the reading, which was followed by a question and answer session.

One attendee asked Alvarez about how the current political climate interferes with her creative process.

“I feel it’s really an important moment to connect and find each other and affirm the things that are important, that are 'the other' voices,” she said. “I think it’s also an impetus in that direction and the importance of getting the story told of people that aren’t capable of telling their stories.” 

She advised aspiring storytellers to read as writers, analyzing the structure of the literature. 

“It was incredibly inspiring to hear Julia Alvarez speak in her own words,”  junior Diamond Brown said. “Her humor and wit was even more enthralling than I had ever read on my own.”

Authors for the Frank B. Hanes writer-in-residence are selected by a faculty committee from the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Gingher is on that committee. 

“She’s a lovely, glamorous, fun, funny, self-deprecating, really kind human being,” Gingher said.  “We need a human face in a difficult world.”

Gingher added Alvarez’s experience is also important for students to learn.

“Change takes time,” Gingher said. “It isn’t immediate; it takes time. I feel like young people are very impatient, so it’s important they hear her.”

Alvarez is the third Frank B. Hanes writer-in-residence, though UNC has had a writer-in-residence program since 1993. Past Frank B. Hanes authors were travel writer Ted Conover in 2017 and poet Natasha Tretheway in 2016.

There are three events lined up for the week. A panel on art and activism took place on Monday along with the annual reading on Tuesday. A conversation about writing on family will take place on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at the Donovan Lounge.

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