Kathleen Alcalá

The Flower in the Skull

The Flower in the Skull, Kathleen Alcalá's second novel, chronicles three generations of women descended from the Opata Indians of the Sonoran Desert. "Like the family in Alcalás previous novel," according to Publishers Weekly, "this one travels far--physically, spiritually, and emotionally--in order to survive."

It received the Western States Book Award and the Governer's Writers Award. (Chronicle Books, 1998, Harvest Books, 1999)

Selected Works

Fiction

Spirits of the Ordinary

Treasures in Heaven

"...a mesmerizing tale... the author explores the fascinating confusions and contradictions plaguing a culture precariously poised between tradition and modernization."

–Booklist

The Flower in the Skull

"She never forgot the power of storytelling as testimony."

–The Utne Reader

Spirits of the Ordinary

"Kathleen Alcalá's Spirits of the Ordinary is an enthralling book..."

–Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Books

"This book entered my dreams."

–Alberto Rios

Creative nonfiction, memoir, environmental sustainability.

The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island

Combining memoir, historical records, and a blueprint for sustainability, The Deepest Roots shows us how an island population can mature into responsible food stewards and reminds us that innovation, adaptation, diversity, and common sense will help us make wise decisions about our future. And along the way, we learn how food is intertwined with our present but offers a path to a better understanding of the future.

Creative Nonfiction

The Desert Remembers My Name

Essays on Family and Writing The Desert Remembers My Name makes an important contribution to discussions of ethnicity, identity, and the literature of place.”

Short Fiction

Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist

"Thoroughly satisfying."

–The New York Times Book Review

"By turns touching, entertaining, and surprising, and uniquely her own."

–Publishers Weekly