Born in New York City, Julia Alvarez moved to the Dominican Republic with her Dominican American parents when she was an infant. In 1960, though, the political situation forced the family to return to New York. Alvarez has explained that the experience of being forced to refine her English upon returning to the United States made her very aware of language—good training for a writer. In 2013, she received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama. Alvarez’s poetry often explores her identity as a Dominican American. She writes about childhood memories and the experience of being an immigrant living between two cultures. Her poetry collections include The Woman I Kept to Myself (2011), Homecoming: New and Collected Poems (1996), and The Other Side / El Otro Lado (1996). Alvarez has also written many novels, including Afterlife (2020), Saving the World (2007), A Cafecito Story (2002), and In the Time of Butterflies (1994), which was set during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and adapted into a motion picture released in 2001. Her other publications include the memoir A Wedding in Haiti (2013) and the nonfiction books Something to Declare (2014) and Once Upon A Quinceañera (2008). Alvarez has also published numerous books for young readers, including the Tía Lola Stories series, Before We Were Free (2018), and Finding Miracles (2018).