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Rafael Alvarez
Rafael Alvarez (born May 24, 1958) 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.
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.
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) and Orlo and Leini (2001). 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. He contributed three short stories to the collection Out of Tune (2006). 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". 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.
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Rafael Alvarez
Rafael Alvarez (born May 24, 1958) 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.
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.
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) and Orlo and Leini (2001). 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. He contributed three short stories to the collection Out of Tune (2006). 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". 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.