Today I’m interviewing Natalia Sylvester, author of Breathe and Count Back from Ten.
Natalia Sylvester is the award-winning author of several novels for adults and young adults. CHASING THE SUN was named the Best Debut Book of 2014 by Latinidad and EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME won an International Latino Book Award and the 2018 Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters.
Natalia's debut YA novel, RUNNING, was a 2020 Junior Library Guild Selection, and her next novel for young adults, BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN, is out now from Clarion Books/HarperCollins. A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES, Natalia's first picture book (illustrated by Juana Medina), will be published by Dial Books in 2024.
Natalia's non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, Latina magazine, and McSweeney's Publishing. Her essays have been anthologized in collections such as A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY and A MEASURE OF BELONGING: WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH.
Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia came to the US at age four and grew up in Florida and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. She received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami, was a 2021 Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was formerly a faculty member at the Mile-High MFA program at Regis University.
Today we’re talking about the importance of consent when excavating our own trauma on the page, how the right readers can make authors feel just as seen and heard and held as our stories make them feel, the heavy burden of self-advocacy, and the impossibility of self-caring our way out of systemic oppression. If you’re looking to be more gentle with yourself and your work, this is the conversation for you. So without further ado, give yourself permission to hit pause on your day and then enjoy my conversation with Natalia Sylvester.
Connect with Natalia online:
Natalia's Website
Twitter
Instagram
Buy her book!
