Purchase and Gift, 2013-2014 (13-03-009-P, 14-04-009-G)
Open for research
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Micah Erwin, 2015 and Grace Hansen, 2016
The daughter of native Dominicans, Julia Alvarez was born in New York City in 1950. Within three months of her birth her parents decided to return to their homeland overthrow American-backed dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The family was forced to flee the Dominican Republic in 1960 when his involvement in a plot to assassinate the dictator was uncovered. Assisted by Manuel Chavez, a CIA contact stationed in Santo Domingo, the family was able to secure needed documents and travel safely to New York City.
Alvarez lived with her family in Queens for four years before being shipped off to boarding school in Massachusetts. During those early years, her sisters and she experienced their new country from a bicultural perspective. Ambivalence toward America as an adopted culture is a theme that permeates her first novel
Alvarez moved frequently from the time she graduated from Syracuse until she became a professor of English at Middlebury College in 1988. From 1975 to 1977, she taught poetry in Kentucky public schools as part of the Poet-in-the-Schools program. The following year, she taught in California and Maryland, where she worked with many Latino students, and North Carolina, where she primarily worked with African-American senior citizens. Her experiences in North Carolina provided the basis for her publication
Following these posts, she taught writing and English at Phillips Andover Academy (1979-1981), the University of Vermont (1981-1983), George Washington University (1984-1985), and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1985-1988). In 1987, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. The following year she became a professor, and later, when she renounced tenure to spend more time on her writing and book touring, she was named a Writer-in-Residence in the English Department of Middlebury College..
Documenting the Hispanic-American experience and the Caribbean diaspora Alvarez has authored eight novels, numerous poetry collections, and a growing number of children's and young adult fiction. She frequently chooses Dominican and Caribbean women of historical importance as the subjects of her novels but interprets them through an imaginative lens. Her work has contributed greatly to critical theories about multiculturalism, biculturalism, and post-colonialism.
Julia Alvarez was elected to the National Members Council, PEN American Center, from 1997 to 1999 and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Hispanic Heritage Award (2002), the Vermont Arts Council's Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts (2011), and the National Medal of Arts (2014). As of 2015, she resides in Vermont with her spouse Bill Eichner, a physician and farmer.
Julia Alvarez, 1950-.
Julia Alvarez Papers, 1963-2013, Harry Ransom Center.
Personal e-mail correspondence with Julia Alvarez, July 9-14, 2014.
Handwritten and typescript drafts, page proofs, galleys, correspondence, research materials and notes, legal and editorial records, photographs, audio and video recordings, floppy disks, awards, books, notebooks, journals, magazines, newspaper clippings, periodicals, posters, maps, and electronic files document the life, work, and family of Julia Alvarez from 1963 to 2013. The eight series are arranged by size and/or importance: I. Long Works, 1966-2012; II. Short Works, 1963-2012; III. Career and Personal, 1966-2014; IV. Public Appearances, 1998-2008; V. Correspondence, 1974-2013; VI. Publicity, 1981-2012; VII. Notebooks, 1975-1990; VIII. Periodicals, 1971-2013. With the exception of the arrangement of long works and short works, for which the order has largely been imposed, each series maintains the original order and reflects Alvarez's meticulous record-keeping activities. Although a number of languages are present (most notably Spanish) the bulk of the materials are written in English. All items are in stable condition.
Series I. is divided into two subseries: A. Novels and Collections and B. Children's and Young Adult Works. The Series constitutes just over half of the Alvarez papers, documenting her literary activities from 1971 to 2012. Several unrealized works are present in addition to her published novels, poetry collections, children's and young adult fiction, and nonfiction works. Research materials relating to
Subseries A. Novels and Collections includes numerous handwritten and typescript drafts, page proofs, galleys, correspondence, clippings, research materials, limited publicity, and electronic files for
Shannon Ravenel was Alvarez's primary editor for her Algonquin Books publications and a correspondent with whom she maintained a close professional relationship. Although many of Alvarez's drafts contain Ravenel's editorial revisions and comments, such edits are only noted in the finding aid when it distinguishes between drafts. Extensive notes and background materials relating to Alvarez's works of historical fiction and nonfiction (e.g.,
Subseries B. Children's and Young Adult Works includes handwritten and typescript drafts, page proofs, correspondence, clippings, research materials, and limited publicity for
Series II. Short Works includes numerous typescript, handwritten, and electronic drafts of published and unpublished essays, short stories, op-eds, articles, and poems. A few chapter drafts from her longer works are intermingled with items in this subseries. The Series documents her early publication efforts from the 1960s and 1970s through her years as an established author and is arranged alphabetically by the original titles Alvarez assigned to groupings of associated works. Among the various subjects included are
Series III. Career and Personal is the second largest series. Employment files, awards and honors, correspondence, grant and fellowship applications, invitations and writing requests, graduate school files, publication efforts, research, interviews, public appearances, teaching, writer-in-residence activities, electronic files, and digital images document Julia Alvarez's career as a writer, poet, teacher, and professor. Although some juvenilia and personal and family materials are present, the series largely represents her professional life. Her activities as a writer-in-residence and teacher from the 1970s to the 1990s are particularly well documented. The Series is arranged alphabetically by subject and/or folder title.
Series IV. Readings and Other Public Appearances includes correspondence, occasional
typescripts, electronic files, and other materials related to her numerous speaking
engagements throughout the country. Engaging with the public through poetry and the
literary arts has constituted a major part of Alvarez's career as evidenced through
frequent participation in poetry festivals, book tours, reading requests, Latino
festivals, library events, commencement addresses, and small local gigs. Alvarez
maintained a thorough record of these events from 1998 to 2008. Additional files on
assorted public engagements from 1985 to 2010 are filed under
Series V. Correspondence spans 12 boxes and 10 electronic files and is organized alphabetically by correspondent name. Individuals are represented either by incoming or outgoing letters from 1971 to 2013. The series includes correspondence with friends, colleagues, editors, activists, family, and other associates. Prominent correspondents include Peter Balakian, Daisy Cocco-DeFilippis, Edwidge Danticat, Seamus Heaney, David Huddle, Erica Jong, Patrick J. Leahy, Beatriz Maggi, Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, Barry Moser, Katherine Neville, Achy Obejas, Sue Ellen Thomson, Bernardo Vega, A. J. Verdelle, Tobias Wolff, and Judith Yarnall.
Series VI. Publicity, spans five boxes and comprises review clippings, awards, publicity tour materials, press clippings for
Series VII. Notebooks is the smallest series and comprises notebooks with handwritten drafts of a number of short stories including early versions of short stories that would eventually become chapters in
Series VIII. Periodicals includes published magazines, journals, poetry collections, and other serial publications containing works by Julia Alvarez from 1971 to 2013. The series is arranged alphabetically by journal title.
Unless otherwise stated, the phrase
Container and folder numbers were updated in 2017; at the end of the finding aid, the original container and folder numbers are listed in brackets after the updated container and folder numbers. Additionally, each folder in the collection lists the updated number followed by the original number in brackets. Not all folder numbers were updated; folders in boxes 1-6 and 10-18 retained all or most of their original numbers.
A mahogany box containing keepsakes, including items belonging to her father, a 3D laser engraved crystal Quinceañra gift, a black decorative pen cap, a bobble-head cow, a pink ribbon with ID tag for dairy cow, a small pencil, wax candle with three glass beads, a shoe box with decorative lid containing various keepsakes, a handmade Haitian textile gift from Edwidge Dandicat depicting La Sirene, and medals dating from 1963 to 2006 were transferred to the Ransom Center Personal Effects Collections.
264 bound volumes, 10 audio books, and 6 DVDs were transferred to the Ransom Center Library. Transferred items include copies of works in translation, anthologies containing her work, and all her published novels, collections, and children and young adult works.
28 VHS tapes and 3 DVDs including award ceremonies, interviews, and several local adaptations of her works from 1997 to 2010 were transferred to the Ransom Center Moving Image Collection.
21 compact discs, including reader auditions for
15 computer disks labelled "early short stories, 1984 or so," 12 compact disks related to research for
Container and folder numbers were updated in 2017; the original container and folder numbers are listed in brackets after the corresponding updated container and folder numbers. Additionally, each folder in the collection lists the updated number followed by the original number in brackets. Not all folder numbers were updated; folders in boxes 1-6 and 10-18 retained all or most of their original numbers.