Alexandra Alessandri is the author of several books for children, including Feliz New Year, Ava Gabriela! (2020), Isabel and Her Colores Go to School (2021), The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía (2023), Lupita’s Hurricane Palomitas (2024), and Grow Up, Luchy Zapata (2024). She also has a short story in the upcoming YA verse anthology All The Love Under the Vast Sky, which will release from Nancy Paulsen Books in 2024. Her books have gone on to receive numerous distinctions, including the Florida Book Award, International Latino Book Award, Américas Award Commendable Title, and the ILA 2022 Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award in Primary Fiction.
The daughter of Colombian immigrants, Alexandra is an adjunct professor of English at Broward College and an instructor at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program. She is also a writer for Curriculum Associates and a poet, with some of her work appearing in The Acentos Review, Rio Grande Review, Atlanta Review, and Young Adult Review Network. She received her BA and MA degrees in English from Florida International University and a Certificate in Fiction Writing from UCLA Extension.
Alexandra’s experience growing up straddling both cultures often influences her children’s fiction and poetry. When not writing or teaching, Alexandra spends her time planning the next great adventure with her husband and son, with whom she lives in South Florida.
My Story: Finding My Way Back to Writing
Once upon a time, I was a child growing up in Florida with summer trips to Colombia. My parents fostered a love of books at a young age, and I was immersed in reading and making up stories. The library was my favorite place, apart from my backyard, which was the stage for my imagination. I graduated to storyteller, entertaining my younger cousins or anyone who would listen, with made-up tales of kingdoms in clouds. At some point, I began filling notebook after notebook with poems, stories, and snippets of my daily life. One of my first typed stories was a (horrid) ghost tale. I still have this story somewhere in the box of memories I keep.
After high school, I attended Florida International University, where I earned my BA and MA degrees in English Literature. During those years, I took creative writing and literature courses, and though my heart was in the former, my practical thinking was in the latter. I kept writing as a hobby, focusing my professional energies on academia instead as I got married and, later, had my son.
Then, in 2008, my father passed away. After his death, I began filling the ensuing void with memories. I wrote to make sense of my past, of my father, and of our (often troubled) relationship. And like memory begets memory, so does writing beget writing. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I’d found my way back to writing.
In 2011, I was diagnosed with an invisible illness–connective tissue disease with a side of fibromyalgia–and I often find myself trying to find a balance between what I want, what I need, and what my body tells me I can do. All these experiences have found their way into my writing. I write about grief and loss, as well as about my identity as a Colombian American, submerged in the nostalgia of my parents’ country but grounded in my U.S. American reality. I write about children like my son, those who grow up steeped in multiple cultures. I also write about the magic that’s possible if only we look closely at the world around us. I’m grateful for my agent, Deborah Warren of East West Literary Agency, for believing in my stories.
On October 20, 2020, my debut picture book Feliz New Year, Ava Gabriela!, illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda, released from Albert Whitman & Company and has since won the silver medal in the 2020 Florida Book Awards Young Children’s Category and the bronze medal in the 2021 International Latino Book Awards. My second picture book, Isabel and Her Colores Go To School, illustrated by Courtney Dawson, released from Sleeping Bear Press on July 15, 2021 and has since won the gold medal in the 2021 Florida Book Awards; it is also an Américas Awards Commendable Title.
Up next: My debut middle grade fantasy, The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía, releases from Atheneum Books for Young Readers on February 21, 2023, followed by Lupita’s Hurricane Palomitas (Beaming Books) and Grow Up, Luchy Zapata (Atheneum) in 2024. I also have a short story in the YA verse anthology All the Love Under the Vast Sky, which releases from Nancy Paulsen Books in early 2024. And there’s more to come!
I’m obsessed with urban murals, strong coffee, and mapping out my ancestry. I’m a kid who never grew up and who wishes life consisted of song and dance at random moments. I’m an only child raised with many primas and primos and deeply rooted in my Colombian heritage. To me, family and faith are everything. We have a Colombian-German-Chilean-American household that gets rowdy during the World Cup, and I wouldn’t have it any other way–hairless pup and all.
Random fun-facts:
- I was born in Queens, NY to Colombian parents and raised in Miami, FL.
- I’m fully bilingual.
- I’m an only child, and my son is an only child. However, my mom is the eldest of eleven and my dad was the middle of six–so I have tons of primos and primas.
- My great-uncle, Bernardo Arias-Trujillo, was a Colombian novelist and poet. There’s a school in Risaralda, Colombia named after him.
- I’m ridiculously clumsy.
- I’m also shy and an introvert.
- Music makes me happy. There are musicians on both sides of my family, and many of our family gatherings are accompanied by live music. My son has inherited this love of music. He plays the guitar, tenor sax, and clarinet, is teaching himself piano, and is always whistling or tapping out a tune.
- I learned the piano and marimba as a child. My dad taught me how to play the piano, and through school, I got to play the marimba at the Superintendent’s Honor’s Music Festival.
- I often create playlists for my novels. They help me visualize and inhabit the world and characters. Picture books, though, like poetry, I generally have to write in silence. Same goes for revision: silence!
- Favorite genres: fantasy and magical realism.
- Favorite music: salsa, cumbia, vallenato (with a side of reggaeton and merengue). I can’t help but start moving when I hear them.
- Favorite colors: pink, purple, and yellow, though really, these change depending on mood and moment; I love all colors, and I love combing through paint chips and their names. (Side note: I also love art, and took it as an elective in middle school.)
- Favorite food: churrasco with rice and beans. And, during the holiday season, buñuelos!
- Throughout elementary school, I wanted to be (in no certain order): a teacher, an actress, and a librarian.
- By the end of high school, I was sure I wanted to major in Psychology, but less than a year into my BA, I switched to English, thanks to the encouragement of my English comp professor.
Books I enjoyed as a child and teen:
- Teo series by Violeta Denou
- Miss Nelson is Back by Harry Allard
- Clifford the Big Red Dog series by Norman Bridwell
- The Bernstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
- Amelia Bedelia series by Peggy Parish, illustrated by Fritz Siebel
- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
- Babysitters Club series by Ann M. Martin
- Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal
- Choose Your Own Adventure series by Edward Packard, R.A. Montgomery, Richard Brightfield, Jay Leibold, Louise Munro Foley
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene
- Agatha Christie mysteries
- Novels by Alexander Dumas, including The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years Later, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo
- Edgar Allan Poe short stories, like “The Tell Tale Heart,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
Alexandra Alessandri 