Rafael Alvarez joins us now to read a work of holiday fiction that’s become something of an annual tradition here at WYPR, for several years on The Signal and now, while that show is on hiatus, on Maryland Morning. Alvarez' short story Aunt Lola is a tale about the power of memory in the kitchen of a Highlandtown rowhouse.
Rafael Alvarez continues to chronicle life in his native Baltimore with his tenth book, Crabtown, USA, which hits bookstores in time for the holiday season. A follow-up to his nonfiction anthologies Hometown Boy and Storyteller, Crabtown chronicles the author's continued fascination with the everyday eccentrics that make Charm City compelling, heartbreaking, beautiful and weird.
A former reporter for the Baltimore Sun and staff writer for the HBO drama The Wire, Alvarez writes fiction from his grandparents' home in East Baltimore and has just completed a screenplay about the Nazi occupation of Greece. His other notable works include Tales from the Holy Land and The Wire: Truth Be Told.
