:Kathleen Alcalá

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|8|29}}

| birth_place = Compton, California, U.S.

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Kathleen Alcalá (born August 29, 1954) is the author of a short-story collection, three novels set in the American Southwest and nineteenth-century Mexico, and a collection of essays. She teaches creative writing at workshops and programs in Washington state and elsewhere, including Seattle University, the University of New Mexico and Richard Hugo House.

Early life

Alcalá was born in Compton, California, in 1954 to Mexican parents. Her ancestry is from Northern Mexico, including Sonora and Chihuahua; some of her great-grandparents lived in Saltillo, Mexico. She was raised Protestant. She is a descendant of Sephardi conversos with roots in Nyer, France,{{cite web|url=https://cryptojews.com/a-thread-in-the-tapestry/ |title=A Thread in the Tapestry |date=26 July 2018 |publisher=Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies |accessdate=2024-05-02}} and maintains a "relationship with Judaism". She applied for Spanish citizenship after the Spanish government began offering citizenship to Sephardi Jews expelled during the Spanish Inquisition.{{cite web|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/three-questions-for-kathleen-alcala-regarding-her-novel-spirits-of-the-ordinary/ |title=Three Questions for Kathleen Alcalá Regarding Her Novel, "Spirits of the Ordinary" |date=16 September 2021 |publisher=LA Review of Books |accessdate=2024-05-02}} Her grandmother was Opata Indian and Irish Mexican.{{cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/the-deepest-roots-book-explores-our-local-food-supply/ |title='The Deepest Roots': Book explores our local food supply |date=3 November 2016 |publisher=Seattle Times |accessdate=2024-05-02}}

Career

Alcalá is also a co-founder of and contributing editor to The Raven Chronicles. A play based on her novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, was produced by The Miracle Theatre of Portland, Oregon. She served on the board of Richard Hugo House and the advisory boards of Con Tinta, Field’s End and the Centrum Writers Conference. She is the winner of several awards for her writing, including an Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship in 2007.{{cite web|title=2007 Fellowship Recipient Profiles |publisher=Artist Trust |url=http://www.artisttrust.org/grants/recipient_profiles/FELL/current |access-date=2008-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080125225107/http://www.artisttrust.org/grants/recipient_profiles/FELL/current |archive-date=2008-01-25 |url-status=dead }}

Alcalá resides on Bainbridge Island, Washington.{{citation|publisher=Bainbridge Island Review|access-date=2012-01-25|date=March 12, 2010|title=Alcalá and Buxton honored as Island Treasures Sunday at IslandWood|url=http://www.bainbridgereview.com/lifestyle/86645682.html}}{{citation|url=http://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/local-authors.aspx |title=Local authors |publisher=Bainbridge Public Library |date=March 26, 2011 |access-date=2012-01-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119213338/http://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/local-authors.aspx |archive-date=January 19, 2012 }}

Works

Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist (Calyx Books)
Spirits of the Ordinary (Chronicle; Harvest Books){{cite news |first=Carolyn |last=Ruff |title=Lifted by the Spirit |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-712698.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517011038/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-712698.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-05-17 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=1997-02-13 |access-date=2008-01-26 }}
The Flower in the Skull (Chronicle; Harvest Books){{cite news |title='Flower in the Skull´ has timeless message |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=DSNB&d_place=DSNB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F364BC952359C31&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |work=The Deseret News |date=1998-07-05 |access-date=2008-01-26 }}
Treasures in Heaven (Chronicle; Northwestern University Press)
The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing (University of Arizona Press){{cite news |first=Barbara |last=Lloyd McMichael |title="The Desert Remembers My Name" | Shaking answers from the family tree |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2003681275_alcala26.html |work=The Seattle Times |date=2007-04-26 |access-date=2008-01-26 }}
The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island{{cite news|url= https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/the-deepest-roots-book-explores-our-local-food-supply/|title= 'The Deepest Roots': Book explores our local food supply|date= November 3, 2016|work= Seattle Times}}

Bibliographical Resources

https://faculty.ucmerced.edu/mmartin-rodriguez/index_files/vhAlcalaKathleen.htm

Critical reception

Charles de Lint, reviewing The Flower in the Skull, declared that "Alcalá is fast becoming one of my favourite writers," praising her work for the "richness [of her] characterization and settings."[http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/1999/cdl9901.htm Books to Look For], F&SF, January 1999