shopify analytics ecommerce tracking
Walsh and Bolton Twitter Unconference Advertise Facebook Book Zazzle Search

About Natalia Sylvester

Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia Sylvester came to the U.S. at age four. A former magazine editor, Natalia now works as a freelance writer in Austin, Texas and is a faculty member of the low-res MFA program at Regis University. Her articles have appeared in Latina Magazine, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, and NBCLatino.com. She is the author of Chasing the Sun, named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad and chosen as a Book of the Month by the National Latino Book Club. Her second novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, is forthcoming from Little A in 2018.

Recent Posts by this author:

  • Notes from the Tail End of a Whirlwind Book Tour
  • On Revision as a Form of Reimagining
  • The In-Between Stages of Writing
  • On Writing a Novel that People Call Political
  • How to Perform (Not Just Read) Your Work in Front of Audiences
  • A Letter to My Past Selves in the Days Before the Second Novel Publishes
  • 18 Writing Lessons to Carry Into 2018
  • The Time It Costs to Write
  • How White Writers Can Be Better Allies to Writers of Color
  • How to Go On Vacation & Write While You’re Not Writing
  • What a Sensitivity Reader Is (and Isn’t) and How to Hire One
  • We Will Always Be Beginners

    • Notes from the Tail End of a Whirlwind Book Tour

    By

    I’m writing this at 11:15 p.m. in a hotel room in Dallas, in a bed that is not my own. I meant to be asleep 15 minutes ago, and then I realized that—even though I’d written this on my planner 3 days this week!—I forgot to write today’s post.

    It’s been a year of every type of emotion imaginable. A year of so much writing. So much traveling. So much book touring (almost non-stop) for Everyone Knows You Go Home since it came out in March. So little is actually in our hands when a book releases, so I told myself earlier this year that I would do everything I could do for it. For me that translated to doing events. Meeting readers. Crashing at friends’ and family’s places all across the country and sometimes, oftentimes, being home no more than a week or two at a time.

    This is the dream, right?

    Kinda.

    Things that make it absolutely beyond worth it for this introverted homebody who would rather be writing in bed:

    The young mom in California who brought her young son to my reading because he’d never met an author before…and getting a note from her the next day telling me how her eyes had teared up hearing her boy telling her grandfather all about it later that evening. 

    Having readers ask me to make their book out to their mom. A book that I wrote as a gift to my mom…becomes a gift to theirs.

    Standing-room only crowds full of loved ones.

    Standing-room only crowds full of strangers.

    Three-person crowds on a cold and rainy day—and pulling up a chair and just chatting.

    Hearing my literary hero (the author who inspired me to write fiction!) introduce my book before a reading using words like masterful and magical (how is this real life?!).

    [Read more…]

    On Revision as a Form of Reimagining

    By

    I had the chance to visit a class of undergraduate advanced Fiction Writing students this week. It was delightful—I remember being an undergrad, having authors come into our classroom, sit at  a desk, and just chat with students. It always felt like such a privilege to gain insights into their writing process, and it was absolutely a privilege for me (some 13 years later) to be able to share my experiences with them. These being writing students, their questions were so different from those I … [Read more...]

    The In-Between Stages of Writing

    By

    There are so many in-between phases in the writing life. There's the time before you begin writing a story, but have already felt the beginnings of a story simmering inside you. The time between finishing a draft and revising it. The time between finishing that draft and revising it yet again. (Repeat as necessary.) The time between finishing a story and starting a new one. What do you do with that in-between time? I've discovered this must be what non-writers call hobbies. Things … [Read more...]

    On Writing a Novel that People Call Political

    By

    I’ve been getting some interesting questions while on book tour. 1 - Do you plan on all on your novels being so political? And 2 - How come your novel doesn’t get more political? The funny thing is, these questions actually don’t contradict one another other. In fact, they reveal a lot about how we think of art and politics. They are what happen when we think of art and politics as being two wholly separate things. Rather than seeing them as being organically intertwined, we like to … [Read more...]

    How to Perform (Not Just Read) Your Work in Front of Audiences

    By

    I have to confess I’ve never been a huge fan of public speaking. And yet, since Everyone Knows You Go Home came out in March, I’ve been on a whirlwind of a book tour that’s consisted of day after day of public speaking. And I’ve loved every minute of it. Despite being an introvert and a person who grew up very shy and soft spoken, reading my work in front of audiences has been a transformative experience. Whereas for my first book, I would get nearly unbearably nervous before an event, … [Read more...]

    A Letter to My Past Selves in the Days Before the Second Novel Publishes

    By

    First, a confession: I'm writing today's post at 11:36 p.m. because for months now I've known that I'd be posting this on March 2, eleven days until my next novel, Everyone Knows You Go Home, is published on March 13th, and partly out of procrastination, and partly out of wanting to share something as close to the "eve" of pub day as possible, I left it for the last minute. It's hard to know what to write in moments like these because for me, being on the verge of publishing a book is … [Read more...]

    18 Writing Lessons to Carry Into 2018

    By

    For the past 6 years on my blog, I've been writing an end-of-the-year list of life lessons learned. It occurred to me as I wrote 17 Things I Learned in 2017 that so often, many of my "life" lessons end up being writing lessons, and vice-versa. And then it occurred to me that these aren't just lessons to look back on, but to carry forward. So whether you're embarking on a new writing project this year, tackling an old one, or simply trying to find direction along this journey, here are 18 bits of … [Read more...]

    The Time It Costs to Write

    By

    The most common question I'm asked about my books is, "How long did it take you to write them?" The second most common question: "What is your writing routine like?" I usually hesitate to answer either of these questions because I suspect they're another way for a writer to compare him or herself to others, which is never helpful. Sure, there are probably tips and insights to be gleaned from learning that it took me nearly seven years and countless revisions and rewrites to finish my first … [Read more...]

    How White Writers Can Be Better Allies to Writers of Color

    By

    In the nearly three weeks since white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, many of us have been (rightfully so) discussing ways to combat hate and dismantle systemic racism. But the truth is, these conversations have always been urgent and necessary. And not just in that large-scale, overwhelming, how-do-we-stop-more-white-supremacists-from-marching kind of way. Our efforts to build a more just and equal society cannot be reactionary, galvanized only by tragedy. They must be … [Read more...]

    How to Go On Vacation & Write While You’re Not Writing

    By

    Confession: I've been on vacation and am writing this post in a last-minute frenzy because many of my to-do's got away from me. When I initially packed my bags, two weeks ago, I very ambitiously packed notebooks, pens, a book and my laptop, thinking that I'd get super inspired and make fabulous progress on my new story. Did that happen? In an actual, feasible way that can be quantified by word count? Of course not. But, I did manage to: Book an emergency Airbnb home (long story) … [Read more...]

    What a Sensitivity Reader Is (and Isn’t) and How to Hire One

    By

    An interesting thing has been happening to me with increased frequency: I’ve been asked to read friends’ and acquaintances’ manuscripts as a sensitivity reader for stories that deal with immigration. Because I am a Latina and an immigrant, and the authors who’ve requested I read their work are writing outside of their own experience, I’ve been asked to evaluate their work for authenticity. So far, I’ve had to turn down these kinds of requests because I’ve been busy with my own writing and … [Read more...]

    We Will Always Be Beginners

    By

    Please join us in welcoming new contributor Natalia Sylvester to Writer Unboxed! Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia Sylvester came to the U.S. at age four. A former magazine editor, Natalia now works as a freelance writer in Austin, Texas and is a faculty member of the low-res MFA program at Regis University. Her articles have appeared in Latina Magazine, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, and NBCLatino.com. Her debut novel, CHASING THE SUN, was named Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad and was chosen as a … [Read more...]