Cleyvis Natera is an essayist, short fiction writer, critic and novelist. Her debut novel Neruda on the Park was an anticipated book of 2022 by TIME, the Today Show, Good Morning America’s Zibby Owens, ELLE, Ms Magazine, Bustle, Goodreads, Book Riot, Entertainment Weekly, The Millions, Electric Literature, Lit Hub and The Rumpus. Upon publication, Neruda on the Park was selected as a May 2022 New York Times Editor’s Choice and as the June 2022 pick for Nobel Laurate Malala Yousafzai’s Fearless Literati Book Club. Natera was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New York City. She’s received honors from PEN America, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA). Her fiction, essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, URSA Fiction, Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration, The Brooklyn Rail, TIME, The Rumpus, Gagosian Quarterly, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Aster(ix) and Kweli Journal, among other publications. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College and a Master of Fine Arts from New York University. Cleyvis worked a corporate job in insurance for two decades ascending to the executive level before pivoting her career to become a full-time writer. She lives with her husband and two young children in Montclair, New Jersey.
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Cleyvis Natera is the author of the debut novel Neruda on the Park. Her fiction, essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, URSA Fiction, Alien Nation: 36 True Tales of Immigration, The Brooklyn Rail, TIME, The Rumpus, Gagosian Quarterly, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, Aster(ix) and Kweli Journal, among other publications.
More about Cleyvis Natera
From the inspiration that first sparked the idea for Neruda on the Park to its journey to publication, these interviews will provide insight and inspiration.
PEN America, “PEN Ten with Cleyvis Natera”
Forbes, “‘Neruda On The Park’ Author Cleyvis Natera On What We’ll Do To Protect What We Love”
Refinery29, “Neruda on the Park Gets the Story of Gentrification in Latine Neighborhoods Right — Finally”
Literary Hub, “Lit Hub Asks: 5 Authors, 7 Questions, No Wrong Answers: Cleyvis Natera”
The Rumpus, “Reverse Gentrification of the Imagination: A Conversation with Cleyvis Natera” by Stephanie Jimenez
CrimeReads, “Aya de León and Cleyvis Natera on Gentrification, Justice, and Latinx Fiction”
Bartistanet, “Cleyvis Natera’s Neruda on the Park explores Gentrification, Family Connections and Neighborhood Survival”
Dominican Writers Association, “Cleyvis Natera on ‘Neruda on the Park’ and the deliciousness of being Dominican”
Photograph © Beowulf Sheehan