Maria Alvarez

Born in Guatemala and raised in the American Southwest, María Isabel Álvarez is an award-winning, first-generation writer, educator, and communications strategist with over a decade of experience across academic, nonprofit, and literary spaces. Her work lives at the intersection of storytelling and impact, shaped by her deep commitment to equity, environmental justice, immigration rights, and the idea of belonging. Whether crafting executive messaging or publishing literary short fiction, her goal is to share stories that not only resonate but also drive change.

She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) and a BA in English Literature from Arizona State University, and currently leads executive communications for Dr. Peter Schlosser, Vice President and Vice Provost of Global Futures. 

Previously, as the Associate Director of Creative Writing at the Binghamton Center for Writers, she simultaneously fulfilled the roles of program manager, marketing coordinator, content creator, and social media manager, overseeing operations and outreach for the center's literary programs and events, while also teaching undergraduate creative writing.

Her literary work has been awarded fellowships, grants, and scholarships from PEN America, The Elizabeth George Foundation, Speculative Literature Foundation, Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Colgate Writers Conference, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Yaddo, and Hedgebrook, with publications in Guernica, Michigan Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, Prairie Schooner, and Gulf Coast, among others. In 2022, she was named the Grand Prize Winner of the Phyllis Grant Zellmer Prize for Fiction.

Her writing is anthologized in The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (Tia Chucha Press, 2017), Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction (Aformentioned Productions, 2019), and No Tender Fences: Immigrant and First-Generation American Poetry (2019). Alongside the poet, Dante Di Stefano, she co-edited the poetry anthology, Misrepresented People: Poetic Responses to Trump's America (NYQ Books, 2018).