Julia Alvarez is the author of five books of fiction, including How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies, as well as a book of essays, five collections of poetry, and work for younger readers, including Return to Sender and the Tia Lola stories. Her honors include being a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, winning the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature, and being named Latina Magazine’s “Woman of the Year.” She lives in Vermont, where she is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College.