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Cleyvis Natera is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel Neruda on the Park published in 2022 by Ballantine Books at Penguin Random House. Neruda on the Park was awarded a Silver Medal by the International Latino Book Awards for Best First Book of Fiction in 2023. Prior to publication, Natera’s debut was a most anticipated book of the year by TIME, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly and Goodreads, among other publications. Upon publication, Neruda on the Park was a May 2022 New York Times Editor’s Choice. Natera studied literature and creative writing at Skidmore College and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from New York University. Her fiction, essays and criticisms have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, URSA Story, TIME, Gagosian Quarterly, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Aster(ix) and Kweli Journal, among others. Natera was awarded the 2024 Toni Morrison Fiction Fellowship at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the 2024 Voices Rising Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. Additionally, Natera’s writing has been supported through awards, fellowships and artist residencies by PEN America, Rowland Writers Retreat, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Disquiet International Literary Program, Voices of our Nation Arts Foundation and Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Natera currently teaches creative writing at Barnard College of Columbia University in New York City and Montclair State University. At Montclair State University, Natera was hired to teach Fiction and Latino Studies while she leads the development of a new M.F.A. Creative Writing Program with a Bilingual Focus. Natera has taught fiction at Tin House, the Kenyon Summer Writing Workshop, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and at Juniper Writers Institute. Natera’s second novel, The Grand Paloma Resort, is forthcoming from her current publisher Ballatine Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, for publication in 2025.

Specialization

Cleyvis Natera is a fiction writer whose work is centrally concerned with the Dominican immigrant experience, gender, class, and borders. She's also interested in exposing multilingualism as a portal for groundbreaking and profoundly moving works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction.

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