Conversations with Lisa Alvarez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Alvarez.

Lisa, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
How did I become a debut author at age 64? I kept writing! Although I write short stories, my own path to publication has been long, but with few regrets. It seems to me that this collection, “Some Final Beauty and other stories,” arrives at exactly the right time.

I graduated from the acclaimed MFA program in writing at UC Irvine over 30 years ago. During those three decades I immersed myself in full-time teaching at a nearby community college, an entirely satisfying career as I mentored hundred of students and, while teaching them writing, kept writing myself, publishing a story here, a poem there, the occasional essay or feature story. I edited three anthologies and found my own work picked up by other anthologies. It was enough for me.

At the same time, during the summer, I went on to work at one of the country’s longest running writing conferences, the Community of Writers in California’s high sierra, assisting the poetry director ad co-directing the writers workshops. This seasonal writing community also kept me inspired and growing as a writer.

Eventually, of course, I began to want what most serious writers desire: a book. So, two years ago, over winter break between semesters, I decided to see if I had already written one. I counted up my stories – eleven, many of them published in small journals and magazines – and decided I that had. While I am familiar with the path to publication that includes agents and big publishing houses, I also understand that a book like mine (story collection) and an author like me (debut, advanced age) was unlikely to attract support. So I opted for independent presses and, over the course of ten days, assembled a manuscript and submitted it to two. One declined, but the University of Nevada Press accepted my manuscript for publication in its New Oeste series which “celebrates the outpouring of creative expression by Latinx writers in the American West of the 21st century.”

The team at UNP has helped me produce a beautiful book, much stronger than my original manuscript submission and graced with a powerful cover image (Woe Is Me To See What I Have Seen See What I See (Original Illustration by Unidentified Woman for Royal School of Art Needlework, 1887) ) created by the acclaimed artist Andrea Bowers.

These are stories set in and around Los Angeles and Southern California and when the collection was accepted back in late 2023, I imagined these stories would be somewhat nostalgic and dated being as they were tales of community activists and organizers from the Reagan 1980s to the first Trump administration: people trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances. Sadly, their lessons about civic engagement and resistance are more relevant than ever.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My road to publication has been smooth, just perhaps longer than most writers.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am most proud of combining my commitment to social justice with teaching, writing and my artisic output whether that is writing a collection of stories that, as my publisher states, “captures the spirit of empowerment in the struggle for justice faced by marginalized communities in a nation defined by politicians from Reagan to Trump” or poetry that ecnourages resistance (https://www.journaloftheplagueyears.ink/blog/a-different-kind-of-fire : https://riseupreview.org/lisa-alvarez ) or art work that does the same ( https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/entertainment/story/2021-10-22/la-maestra-at-santa-anas-crear-studio-teaches-important-lessons)

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Years ago, the writer Grace Paley once advised me to find and write the stories that I and only I could write featuring characters I had not seen represented before. “That’s your work,” Grace said. “Don’t try to write like anyone else. Find your stories. Your people.” Her perspective helped me find what is often called “voice,” but also helped me do away with the pressure to emulate or the desire to compare, to see writing as some kind of competition or rivalry.

Also, find community! What really kept me writing were my writer friends and those wonderful community workshops that I found whether it was at Santa Monica College with L.A.’s legendary writer/teacher Jim Krusoe, the summer writing workshops at Olympic Valley in California’s High Sierra or those opportunities to work with writers like Richard Bausch in his free community workshop at Chapman University. The gentle pressure of a class or workshop, the friendship made there – all are essential.

Pricing:

• My collection costs $24.00

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lisaalvarez.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebel.girl.lisa/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-alvarez-6837923a/
• Other: https://unpress.nevada.edu/9781647791971/some-final-beauty-and-other-stories/

Image Credits
Lisa Alvarez with Urban Light – photo by Elle Alvarez

Lisa Alvarez at podium – photo by Brett Hall Jones

Lisa Alvarez at window – photo by Brett Hall Jones