Natalia Sylvester
Natalia Sylvester is the award-winning author of 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. Her third novel, RUNNING, was a 2020 Junior Library Guild Selection, and her fourth, untitled novel is forthcoming in spring 2022 from Clarion Books/HMH. 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. Natalia received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami. She is currently a visiting associate professor at the University of Texas and was previously a faculty mentor at the Mile-High MFA program at Regis University.
Natalia can be found at nataliasylvester.com
Charitable Organization: Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
Praise
“Sylvester charms with a family saga that is both epic and intimate in scope, delivering an unforgettable tale of the boundless power of love and redemption. Everyone Knows You Go Home is a dreamy spell of a novel, a new window into the magic and mystery of the natural world and beyond.” —Patricia Engel, author of The Veins of the Ocean and Vida, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year
“Natalia Sylvester began writing her latest book more than five years ago, well before Donald Trump took office with a promise to crack down on illegal immigration, well before the current crisis of asylum-seeking families being separated at the border. Yet, in many ways, Everyone Knows You Go Home is prescient, tackling issues of family division, the arduous journey of crossing from one country into the next, and the sacrifices we make in exchange for a better future.” —Houston Chronicle
"Sylvester's YA debut embodies the theme of our decade: to stand up and speak up for what we believe in.... Sylvester expertly puts readers inside the pressured lives of a family in politics and reaffirms the adage that indeed, knowledge is power." —Booklist, STARRED review
