Julia Alvarez Returns to Poetry to Find Herself

At NPR, Julia Alvarez discusses why poetry, rather than fiction, gives her access to a better understanding of herself. “I feel like poems are where I am meeting up against the silence,” Alvarez says. “I’m trying to understand and give word to feelings that are yet to be brought into language. I wanted to touch on those moments where there’s a little enlightenment or a little awareness. It doesn’t have to be about something big or important, but those little things you keep to yourself — selves that you keep to yourself — and give us language to understand them.”