Kathleen Alcalá is known as a writer of novels, and a teacher of fiction and non-fiction who is praised for her thoughtful exploration of the concept of family and the search for one’s creative roots.
Born to Mexican parents, she grew up in Southern California with a family history that she later felt compelled to explore and understand. As she puts it, “I began writing fiction in order to explain the world to myself.” Adding, “I see myself as a translator between worlds, between cultures, between jargon and contexts.” Her fiction has been described as “magic realism,” a genre that has its base in the natural world but can reach into realms of folklore and myth. She herself sees her stories as tales of transformation, depicting people searching for connections.
Her studies included degrees from Stanford University, the University of Washington, and the University of New Orleans. Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, Kathleen’s first book, was published shortly before she moved to the Island in 1995. Her writing includes a trilogy of novels, Spirits of the Ordinary, The Flower in the Skull, and Treasures in Heaven, plus short stories and essays. Her most recent book is The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island. Kathleen is co-founder and contributing editor of Raven Chronicles, and one of the creators of Field’s End, (now merged with BARN Writers Group). She continues to be instrumental in bringing writers together.
The Seattle Times described her as a “builder of bridges, not merely between Latino and American cultures, but across divides of gender, generation, religion and ethnicity.”