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. In the Time of the Butterflies, with over a 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. Afterlife, a new novel, and Already a Butterfly, a new picture book for young readers, were published in 2020. Visit her at juliaalvarez.com.