Rafael Alvarez
{{Short description|American author (born 1958)}}
{{For|people with a similar name|Rafael Álvarez (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Rafael Alvarez
| image = Rafael Alvarez, Author.jpg
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = May 24, 1958
| birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Journalist, screenwriter
| nationality = American
| period =
| genre =
| notableworks = The Fountain of Highlandtown
| subject = Short fiction, Non-fiction
| website ={{web archive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130828150156/http://www.alvarezfiction.com/}}
}}
Rafael Alvarez (born May 24, 1958{{cite web|url=http://www.alvarezfiction.com/about.html|title=About the Author|access-date=2007-10-14|publisher=alvarezfiction.com|year=2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130828154207/http://www.alvarezfiction.com/about.html|archive-date=2013-08-28|url-status=usurped}}) is an American author based in Baltimore and Los Angeles. Alvarez went to work for the Sunpapers of Baltimore as a teenager—first in the circulation department and then the horse racing desk in sports—before landing on the City Desk as a utility man and neighborhood folklorist. He was with The Sun from 1977 through 2001. After leaving the paper, Alvarez worked on ships as a laborer before joining the staff of the HBO drama The Wire. He also worked on the NBC crime dramas Life and The Black Donnellys.
Among his many books are two short story collections—The Fountain of Highlandtown and Orlo & Leini; a history of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; two anthologies of journalism—Hometown Boy and Storyteller; and The Tuerk House, a history of Baltimore's pioneering drug and alcohol treatment center for the poor. In 2010, he was nominated for an Edgar Award for The Wire: Truth Be Told, an encyclopedic companion to the television series.
Biography
The first of three sons of Manuel Rafael Alvarez and the former Gloria Jones, the author was born at St. Agnes Hospital in southwest Baltimore across from a former Catholic orphanage and reform school—St. Mary's Industrial School—attended by Babe Ruth. He was raised in suburban Linthicum and graduated in 1976 from Mt. St. Joseph High School. Alvarez is of Polish, Italian, and Spanish descent and was raised in a culturally Polish-American home. He is often assumed to be Hispanic, but he does not identify as such.{{cite web|url=http://www.palettemz.com/spotlight-rafael-alvarez-writer/ |title=Rafael Alvarez – Writer |publisher=Palette Magazine |access-date=2015-06-30}}
He returned to the City of Baltimore while attending Loyola College, buying a rowhouse on North Ellwood Avenue in East Baltimore in 1980. A decade later, he moved into his paternal grandparents' house on Macon Street in Greektown.
Alvarez began his journalism career in 1977, writing for a new Baltimore weekly—City Paper—while working in the circulation department of the Baltimore Sun, dispatching trucks. In 1978, he moved to the paper's sports department to compile horse racing results. In 1981, he was moved to the City Desk and learned to write obituaries while covering the police districts. He remained at the Sun through January 2001, when he took a buyout and went to work as a laborer on merchant ships.
The Sun has published two anthologies of his journalism: Hometown Boy (1999) and Storyteller (2001).
Alvarez also writes fiction and has had two collections of short fiction published: The Fountain of Highlandtown (1997){{cite book
| last = Alvarez
| first = Rafael
| year = 1997
| title = The Fountain of Highlandtown
| publisher = Woodholme House Publishers
| location = Baltimore, Maryland
}} and Orlo and Leini (2001).{{cite web|url=http://www.hbo.com/thewire/cast/crew/rafael_alvarez.shtml|title=Rafael Alvarez biography|access-date=2007-10-14|publisher=HBO|year=2007}}{{cite book
| last = Alvarez
| first = Rafael
| year = 2001
| title = Orlo and Leini
| publisher = Woodholme House Publishers
| location = Baltimore, Maryland
}} The former includes the autobiographical short story "The Fountain of Highlandtown" which won the Baltimore City's Artscape Award for the short story. Alvarez is at work on another short story collection called Sea Stories. He credits his time as a journalist with providing him with a wealth of information to use in his fiction. He has also published the non-fiction anniversary book, First and Forever: The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People's History.{{cite book
| last = Alvarez
| first = Rafael
| year = 2006
| title = First and Forever: The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People's History
| publisher = Editions Du Signe
| location = Baltimore, Maryland
}} He contributed three short stories to the collection Out of Tune (2006).{{cite book
| first1 = Rafael |last1=Alvarez |first2=Jason |last2=Tinney |first3=Sofia |last3=Alvarez |first4=Airin |last4=Miller
| year = 2006
| title = Out of Tune
| publisher = Hilliard & Harris Publishers
| location = Baltimore, Maryland
}}{{cite web|url=http://www.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=13014 |title=Out Of Tune Debuts |access-date=2007-10-14 |publisher=Baltimore City Paper |year=2007 |author=Bret McCabe |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814152757/http://www2.citypaper.com/arts/story.asp?id=13014 |archive-date=August 14, 2011 }} The project also includes stories by Alvarez's daughter Sofia, Baltimore musician Jason Tinney, Rosalia Scalia and Airin Miller.
In 2001, Alvarez left the Baltimore Sun and joined the Seafarers International Union with the intention of working on ships. He has since worked as a writer/producer on several television shows. Alvarez first worked in television as a freelance screenwriter on Homicide: Life on the Street contributing the teleplay for the sixth season episode "All is Bright".{{cite episode
| title = All is Bright
| series = Homicide: Life on the Street
| series-link = Homicide: Life on the Street
| credits = Matt Reeves (director), Julie Martin, James Yoshimura, Rafael Alvarez (writers)
| network = NBC
| airdate = 1997-12-12
| season = 6
| number = 08
}} The show was based on a book by his former Sun colleague David Simon who was working as a producer on the sixth season in 1997 when Alvarez was hired.
Alvarez worked with Simon again as a writer on The Wire. He was credited as a staff writer for the second season.{{cite web|url=http://www.hbo.com/thewire/cast/crew/season_2.shtml|title=Season 2 Crew|access-date=2007-10-14|publisher=HBO|year=2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100109052836/http://www.hbo.com/thewire/cast/crew/season_2.shtml | archive-date = 2010-01-09| url-status=live}} He contributed a teleplay for an episode in each of the first three seasons including "One Arrest",{{cite web
| year = 2004
| title = Episode guide - episode 07 The Wire
| publisher = HBO
| access-date = 2006-08-02
| url = http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season1/episode07.shtml
| title = One Arrest
| episode-link = One Arrest (The Wire episode)
| series = The Wire
| series-link = The Wire (TV series)
| credits = David Simon, Rafael Alvarez
| network = HBO
| airdate = 2002-07-21
| season = 1
| number = 7
}} "Backwash"{{cite web
| year = 2004
| title = Episode guide - episode 20 backwash
| publisher = HBO
| access-date = 2006-06-22
| url = http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season2/episode07.shtml
| title = Backwash
| episode-link = Backwash (The Wire episode)
| series = The Wire
| series-link = The Wire (TV series)
| credits = David Simon, Rafael Alvarez
| network = HBO
| airdate = 2003-07-13
| season = 2
| number = 07
}} and "Homecoming".{{cite web
| year = 2004
| title = Episode guide - episode 31 Homecoming
| publisher = HBO
| access-date = 2006-08-09
| url = http://www.hbo.com/thewire/episode/season3/episode06.shtml
| title = Homecoming
| episode-link = Homecoming (The Wire episode)
| series = The Wire
| series-link = The Wire (TV series)
| credits = David Simon, Rafael Alvarez
| network = HBO
| airdate = 2004-10-24
| season = 3
| number = 06
}} Alvarez also wrote a guide book on the series called The Wire: Truth be Told.{{cite book
| last = Alvarez
| first = Rafael
| year = 2004
| title = The Wire: Truth Be Told
| publisher = Pocket Books
| location = New York
}} Simon credits Alvarez with bringing a wealth of experience to their depiction of the Baltimore port in the show's second season.{{cite web
| last = Goldman
| first = Eric
| title = IGN Exclusive Interview: The Wire's David Simon
| date = 27 October 2006
| publisher = IGN
| access-date = 2007-09-27
| url = http://uk.tv.ign.com/articles/742/742350p1.html
}} Alvarez described The Wire as similar to a Russian novel in that "the reader does the work for the first hundred pages, and then it turns and you're lost in it[.] With The Wire, it might be Episode 6 before it turns and you're in."{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/22/071022fa_fact_talbot?currentPage=1|title=Stealing Life|access-date=2007-10-28|magazine=The New Yorker|year=2007|author=Margaret Talbot}}
He left The Wire's writing staff after the show's third season. He now splits his time between Baltimore and Los Angeles. He worked as a writer and consulting producer for the gambling drama Tilt in 2005. He wrote the episode "Nobody Ever Listens". The series was cancelled while airing its first season. He worked as a staff writer and producer on Andre Braugher's FX cable mini-series, Thief in 2006. He worked on Paul Haggis' NBC drama The Black Donnellys in 2007.{{cite web|url=http://www.nbc.com/The_Black_Donnellys/about/ |title=The Black Donnellys |access-date=2007-10-14 |publisher=NBC |year=2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012040609/http://www.nbc.com/The_Black_Donnellys/about/ |archive-date=October 12, 2007 }} He was credited as a producer and wrote the episode "The Only Sure Thing".{{cite episode
| title = The Only Sure Thing
| series = The Black Donnellys
| series-link = The Black Donnellys
| credits = Anthony Hemingway (director), Rafael Alvarez, Mick Betancourt (writers)
| network = NBC
| airdate = 2007-09-04
| season = 1
| number = 08
}} The series aired as a mid-season replacement and was cancelled after thirteen episodes.
Alvarez also wrote a pilot called Panic in Detroit for NBC. Based on this piece, they hired him to work on Life as a writer and producer.{{cite web|url=http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/critics/blog/2007/05/alvarez_gets_life_a_new_nbc_fa.html|title=Alvarez gets Life -- a new NBC fall series|access-date=2007-10-14|work=The Baltimore Sun|year=2007|author=David Zurawik}} Alvarez co-wrote the episode "A Civil War" with series creator and show runner Rand Ravich. He left the crew of Life after the first season.
Since 2021, Alvarez has written columns for the local news website Baltimore Fishbowl.{{cite news |title=Rafael Alvarez, Author at Baltimore Fishbowl |url=https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/author/rafael-alvarez/ |access-date=9 May 2025 |work=Baltimore Fishbowl |date=7 May 2025}}
Work
=Bibliography=
- The Wire: Truth Be Told, Grove Press, 2010.
- Hometown Boy, Baltimore Sun, 1999.
- The Fountain of Highlandtown, Woodholm House Pub, 1997.
- Storyteller, Baltimore Sun, 2001.
- Orlo and Leini, Woodholme House Pub, 2000.
- First and Forever: The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People's History, Editions Du Signe, 2006.
- Tales from the Holy Land, Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, 2014.
=Filmography=
Writer
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#ccc; text-align:center;"
! Year !! Show !! Episode !! Notes |
| rowspan=2|2007
|Life |"A Civil War" |Season 1, episode 7 |
| The Black Donnellys
|"The Only Thing Sure" |Season 1, episode 6 |
| 2006
|"No Direction Home" |Episode 4 |
| 2005
|Tilt |"Nobody Ever Listens" |Season 1, episode 8 |
| 2004
|rowspan=3|The Wire |"Homecoming" |Season 3, episode 6 |
| 2003
|"Backwash" |Season 2, episode 7 |
| 2002
|"One Arrest" |Season 1, episode 7 |
| 1997
|"All Is Bright" |Season 6, episode 8 |
Producer
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#ccc; text-align:center;"
! Year !! Show !! Role !! Notes |
| rowspan=2|2007
|Life |Producer and writer |Season 1 |
| The Black Donnellys
|Producer and writer |Season 1 |
| 2006
|Producer |Mini-series |
| 2005
|Tilt |Consulting producer and writer |Season 1 |
| 2004
|rowspan=2|The Wire |Story editor and writer |Season 3 |
| 2003
|Staff writer |Season 2 |
External links
- {{IMDb name|0959567|Rafael Alvarez}}
- [http://www.thelocalvoice.net/oxford/author/rafael-alvarez/ Author archives at the Local Voice]
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/ursusdave/sets/72157625063881436/ Photos of Rafael Alvarez (c. 2010)]
References
{{reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Rafael}}
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:American newspaper reporters and correspondents
Category:American non-fiction crime writers
Category:American writers of Italian descent
Category:American people of Polish descent
Category:American people of Spanish descent
Category:Television producers from Maryland
Category:American television writers
Category:American male television writers
Category:People from Linthicum, Maryland
Category:The Baltimore Sun people
Category:Writers from Baltimore