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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:

  • 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
  • A Letter to Aspiring-Writer-Me from Debut-Novelist-Me
  • Too Social for Comfort: How to Build an Online Presence and Stay Safe

    • The In-Between Stages of Writing

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    Photo by Nolan Issac on Unsplash

    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 that bring you joy, that you do purely for fun and pleasure. Which isn’t to say that writing is not something that brings me joy or that brings me pleasure…it’s just that I don’t quite see it as a hobby so much as a part of my life. Like breathing and reading.

    I’m learning that the most nurturing hobbies for me are the ones that allow me to turn off my writer’s brain for a bit. Walking through my house the other day, I realized something. [Read more…]

    On Writing a Novel that People Call Political

    By 18 Comments

    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 […]

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

    By 15 Comments

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

    By 22 Comments

    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 […]

    18 Writing Lessons to Carry Into 2018

    By 27 Comments

    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 […]

    The Time It Costs to Write

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    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, […]

    How White Writers Can Be Better Allies to Writers of Color

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    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 […]

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

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    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 […]

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

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    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 […]

    We Will Always Be Beginners

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    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 […]

    A Letter to Aspiring-Writer-Me from Debut-Novelist-Me

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    Please welcome Natalia Sylvester, debut author of Chasing the Sun. Natalia was born in Lima, Peru, and she came to the U.S. at age four. She grew up in South Florida and received a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Miami. A former magazine editor, Natalia now works as a freelance writer in […]

    Too Social for Comfort: How to Build an Online Presence and Stay Safe

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    Hello Blog Readers: It’s Erika Robuck, and I’m here to introduce Natalia Sylvester‘s incredibly smart and fascinating post about boundaries on social media. Natalia is a copywriter and the founder of @InkyClean. Her debut novel, Chasing the Sun, will be out 5.20.14 from New Harvest. You can learn more about her by visiting her website and following her […]

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