Dominican American author Julia Alvarez has released a new poetry collection titled Visitations, which delves into the realities of aging at 76, according to a report by HipLatina on June 26, 2026.
Alvarez, known for her debut novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies, returns to poetry, which she calls her foundational creative outlet.
“Four decades of my life, what the publishers wanted was novels, and I was working on those, but in between and sometimes in the middle of that, I would always return to my rock bottom, which was poetry,” Alvarez said.
She described poetry as her first love and the purest form of linguistic expression.
“To keep returning to it is like to keep reminding myself of the best that language can be,” she added.
The collection includes poems written over various stages of her life, focusing on growing older. Alvarez noted that she has encountered racism, ethnic prejudice, and now ageism.
“I’m now in the –ism of ageism,” she said.
She observed that older people are often sidelined in stories. “So often, older people are not the main characters in any story.
They’re usually in the background dispensing advice or the witch that’s getting in the way of the protagonist,” Alvarez said.
Turning 76 inspired her to explore the final chapters of life. “If we’re lucky, we’re all going to get old.
So it’s a landscape that is worth exploring,” she stated.
Alvarez questioned what it means to be near the end of life, surrounded by memories of deceased loved ones.
“What does it mean to be so close to the dead we have lost? To have more people dead that we love than alive?”
she asked.
Her poem “The Red Bathrobe” captures the feeling of becoming invisible as younger figures take center stage.
“That invisibility, I think, is important to acknowledge and to name and to story about,” she said, adding that few narratives address this social invisibility.
Despite being honored at the Dominican Writers Summit 2026, Alvarez avoids focusing on her legacy. “I really don’t think about it.
If I thought about it, I would lose my focus,” she explained.
She emphasized that writing requires devotion to the story and characters, not audience reactions. “When you’re writing, you’re in the service of the story and the characters.
I can’t be looking at my audience,” she said.
Alvarez recalled starting to write because American literature lacked stories representing her immigrant and family experiences. “When I started writing, there was that gap in the shelf.
I couldn’t see myself,” she said.
She described her creative process as a search for understanding. “I go into story not because I have answers but because I have questions,” Alvarez said.
She expressed gratitude for her long career.
“How lucky is it to be able to do what is your passion to do in this world and get paid for it?”
she concluded.
