Rafael Alvarez

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Rafael Alvarez

Born May 24 1958
United States
Occupation Journalist, Television Writer
Nationality American
Subjects Short fiction, Non-fiction
Notable work(s) "The Fountain of Highlandtown"
For the Spanish diver, see Rafael Álvarez

Rafael Alvarez (born May 24, 1958[1]) is a journalist, author and television producer and writer.

Alvarez worked as a city desk reporter for the Baltimore Sun for twenty years[2] The Sun has published two anthologies of his journalism entitled Hometown Boy (1999)[3] and Storyteller (2001).[2][4] Alvarez is not originally from Highlandtown and Baltimore City. He was born at St. Agnes Hospital, reared in suburban Linthicum, and graduated in 1976 from Mount St. Joseph High School, a private Catholic boys' school in Irvington. He moved into the city while attending Loyola College, bought a home on North Ellwood Avenue in East Baltimore in 1980, and moved into his paternal grandparents' house in Greektown in 1989. He began his journalism career in 1977 working as a truck dispatcher for the Baltimore Sun and then doing the box scores for the sports desk.[1] In 1981, he transferred to the city desk and learned to cover the police beat.[1] In 2008, from January to April, he wrote a weekly column for The Baltimore Examiner.

Alvarez also writes fiction and has had two collections of short fiction published; "The Fountain of Highlandtown" (1997)[5] and "Orlo and Leini" (2001).[2][6] The former includes the autobiographical short story "The Fountain of Highlandtown" which won the Baltimore City's Artscape Award for the short story.[1] Alvarez is at work on another short story collection called Sea Stories.[1] He credits his time as a journalist with providing him with a wealth of information to use in his fiction.[7] He has also published the non-fiction anniversary book,First and Forever: The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People's History.[8] He contributed three short stories to the collection Out of Tune (2006).[9][10] The project also includes stories by Alvarez's daughter Sofia, Baltimore musician Jason Tinney, Rosalia Scalia and Airin Miller.[10]

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[2] on Homicide: Life on the Street contributing the teleplay for the sixth season episode "All is Bright".[11] 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.

Alvarez worked with Simon again as a writer on The Wire. He was credited as a staff writer for the second season.[12] He contributed a teleplay for an episode in each of the first three seasons including "One Arrest",[13][14] "Backwash"[15][16] and "Homecoming".[17][18] Alvarez also wrote a guide book on the series called The Wire: Truth be Told.[19] Simon credits Alvarez with bringing a wealth of experience to their depiction of the Baltimore port in the show's second season.[20] Alvarez described The Wire as similar to a Russian novel in that "the reader does the work for the first hundred pages, and then it turns and you’re lost in it[.] With The Wire, it might be Episode 6 before it turns and you’re in.”[21]

He left The Wire's writing staff after the show's third season. He now splits his time between Baltimore and Los Angeles.[7] He worked as a staff writer and producer on Andre Braugher's FX cable mini-series, Thief.[22] He worked on Paul Haggis' NBC drama The Black Donnellys.[23] He was credited as a producer and wrote the episode "In Each One a Saviour".[24]

Alvarez also wrote a pilot called Panic in Detroit for NBC.[22] Based on this piece, they hired him to work on Life as a writer and producer.[22]


[edit] External links

Rafael Alvarez at the Internet Movie Database

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e About the Author. alvarezfiction.com (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  2. ^ a b c d Rafael Alvarez biography. HBO (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  3. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (1999). Hometown Boy. Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore Sun. 
  4. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (2001). Storyteller. Baltimore, Maryland: Baltimore Sun. 
  5. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (1997). The Fountain of Highlandtown. Baltimore, Maryland: Woodholme House Publishers. 
  6. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (2001). Orlo and Leini. Baltimore, Maryland: Woodholme House Publishers. 
  7. ^ a b Kelsey Volkmann (2007). The 3-minute interview: Rafael Alvarez. The Examiner. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  8. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (2006). First and Forever: The Archdiocese of Baltimore, A People's History. Baltimore, Maryland: Editions Du Signe. 
  9. ^ (2006) Out of Tune. Baltimore, Maryland: Hilliard & Harris Publishers. 
  10. ^ a b Bret McCabe (2007). Out Of Tune Debuts. Baltimore City Paper. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  11. ^ "All is Bright". Matt Reeves, Writ. Julie Martin, James Yoshimura, Rafael Alvarez. Homicide: Life on the Street. NBC. 1997-12-12. No. 08, season 6.
  12. ^ Season 2 Crew. HBO (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  13. ^ Episode guide - episode 07 The Wire. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
  14. ^ "One Arrest". David Simon, Rafael Alvarez. The Wire. HBO. 2002-07-21. No. 7, season 1.
  15. ^ Episode guide - episode 20 backwash. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
  16. ^ "Backwash". David Simon, Rafael Alvarez. The Wire. HBO. 2003-07-13. No. 07, season 2.
  17. ^ Episode guide - episode 31 Homecoming. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-08-09.
  18. ^ "Homecoming". David Simon, Rafael Alvarez. The Wire. HBO. 2004-10-24. No. 06, season 3.
  19. ^ Alvarez, Rafael (2004). The Wire: Truth Be Told. New York: Pocket Books. 
  20. ^ Goldman, Eric. IGN Exclusive Interview: The Wire's David Simon. IGN. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
  21. ^ Margaret Talbot (2007). Stealing Life. The New Yorker. Retrieved on 2007-10-28.
  22. ^ a b c David Zurawik (2007). Alvarez gets Life -- a new NBC fall series. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  23. ^ The Black Donnellys. NBC (2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
  24. ^ "In Each One a Saviour". Anthony Hemingway, Writ. Rafael Alvarez, Mick Betancourt. The Black Donnellys. NBC. 2007-09-04. No. 08, season 1.