Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria and the United Palace of Cultural Arts proudly present literary icon Julia Alvarez for The Cemetery of Untold Stories, her new inventive and emotional novel about storytelling and her homeland of the Dominican Republic, also available in Spanish.

Alma Cruz, the celebrated writer at the heart of The Cemetery of Untold Stories, doesn’t want to end up like her friend, a novelist who fought so long and hard to finish a book that it threatened her sanity. So when Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she has the beautiful idea of turning it into a place to bury her untold stories—literally, allowing them to talk back to her and talk to one another behind her back, rewriting and revising themselves. The Cemetery of Untold Stories asks: Whose stories get to be told, and whose buried? Readers of Isabel Allende’s Violeta and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead will devour Alvarez’s extraordinary new novel about beauty and authenticity.

This exciting evening, held in Washington Heights NYC, will feature a conversation between Alvarez and two fellow Dominican-American writers Angie Cruz (Dominicana, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water) and Elizabeth Acevedo (The Poet X, Family Lore). The conversation will be followed by a Q&A.

ASL and Spanish-language interpretation will be available. The event will be livestreamed in English and available with the purchase of a ticket.

TICKETS are available at UnitedPalace.com:

$30 ticket with book IN ENGLISH$22 ticket with book IN SPANISH (boleto con libro EN ESPAÑOL)$10 companion ticket (no book)$5 companion ticket for ages 12 & under$8 livestream

Signing. There will be no signing opportunity at the event. Books purchased with a ticket will be signed before the event and available for pick up once you arrive. To buy signed copies of any of the authors’ other books, please purchase the books ahead of time at www.WordUpBooks.com and include “Pickup at Event” in the Order Comments. No books brought by attendees will be signed.

Group Sales. For group sales (schools and youth programs) of 15 or more, please contact Word Up directly at uptownreads@wordupbooks.com.

Accessibility. The United Palace is fully accessible via wheelchair and ramped for easy access. There is wheelchair seating in the first few rows. Accessible restrooms are available on the first floor.

Getting there. The United Palace is located at 4140 Broadway, New York, NY 10033 in Washington Heights. You may take the A Train to 175th Street & Fort Washington Avenue, the C Train to 168th Street & Broadway, and the 1 Train to 181st Street & St. Nicholas Avenue. There is no public parking; there are parking garages at 4162 Broadway, 4172 Broadway, 4070 Broadway, 554 174th St., 100 Haven Ave., 200 Haven Ave., 284 Audubon Ave., and 506 181st Street.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Word Up Community Bookshop’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer in residence at Middlebury College. Her work has garnered wide recognition, including a Latina Leader Award in Literature from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature, the Woman of the Year by Latina magazine, and inclusion in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling.

Angie Cruz is the author of the novels How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, Soledad, Let It Rain Coffee, and Dominicana, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize and a Good Morning America Book Club pick. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aster(ix), a literary and arts journal, and is an associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.

Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her loves.