{"product_id":"visitations-poems-9780593805039","title":"Visitations: Poems","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"Visitations \u003c\/i\u003eis a cause for celebration. The first book of poems by Julia Alvarez in over twenty years braids miracles and mourning, infused with the compassion that characterizes all the work of this resplendent writer.\" --Martín Espada, National Book Award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eJailbreak of Sparrows\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJulia Alvarez returns to her first love, poetry, in her latest collection, with scintillating poems drawn from all the seasons of her life, from childhood to the years of silver. In these poems, Alvarez traces her life gently, a fingertip following lines on a page, through memories of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, a dictatorship dramatically survived, the smells of sancocho and sofrito, the formative influence of her tías and her sisters, her move to America and the challenges of learning English, the search for mental health and beauty, redemption and success. We meet her grandchild and her mother, her lovers, visit the homes where she grew up and the homes where she grew into the formidable writer read in thousands of classrooms across America today. Her wisdom is as clear and beautiful as the light that shines through glass and yet grounded through the form and substance of self-knowing. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTold with a storyteller's intimacy and the comfort of a warm hearth, this is a master writer's reflection on family, aging, love, the body, having a voice, and the very act of composing poetry itself, experienced across the arc of decades--a collection of searching for an artistic voice, for the author's very essence, until, \"the way it sometimes happens: we arrive \/ where we were promised, belong to \/ what we longed for in ourselves, each other.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJULIA ALVAREZ left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960, at the age of ten. She is the author of numerous works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including her beloved first novel, \u003ci\u003eHow the García Girls Lost Their Accents\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eIn the Time of the Butterflies\u003c\/i\u003e, which was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its Big Read program. She was the subject of an \u003ci\u003eAmerican Masters\u003c\/i\u003e documentary, \u003ci\u003eJulia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined\u003c\/i\u003e, on PBS and was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. She lives in Vermont. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ejuliaalvarez.com\u003cbr\u003eFacebook: @authorjuliaalvarez\u003cbr\u003eInstagram: @writerjalvarez\u003cbr\u003eBlueSky: @writerjalvarez.bsky.social\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52160422019346,"sku":"9780593805039","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0602c18b-0d51-4e85-b00e-dcd706c951f1.jpg?v=1775059830","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/visitations-poems-9780593805039","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}