Media Kit
Press Contacts:
For A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES and LA MALETA DE TESOROS:
Sierra Pregosin, spregosin@penguinrandomhouse.com
For BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN and RUNNING:
John Sellers, john.sellers@harpercollins.com
For CHASING THE SUN or EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME:
Kristin Lunghamer, krislung@amazon.com
Photos, bios and cover images are below.
Long Bio:
Born in Lima, Peru, Natalia Sylvester is an award-winning author of books for children, teens, and adults, among them the YA novel BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN, which was named a Pura Belpré honor book and Schneider Family honor book in 2023 by the American Library Association, and EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME, which won the International Latino Book Award and the 2019 Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters. Natalia's first picture book, A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES (illustrated by Juana Medina) is a Junior Library Guild Selection for both its English and Spanish versions. Her debut middle grade novel, NO WAY NEVER SISTERS (co-written with Chantel Acevedo) will be out in March 2026 from Simon & Schuster.
Natalia's non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, Bustle, Catapult, Electric Literature, Latina magazine, and McSweeney's Publishing. Her essays have been anthologized in collections such as A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY and A MEASURE OF BELONGING: WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH.
Natalia received a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami, was a 2021 Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and was formerly a faculty member at the Mile-High MFA program at Regis University. She now lives in South Florida.
Short Bio:
Natalia Sylvester is the Pura Belpré- and Schneider Family-honor winning author of the young adult novel BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN, the young adult novel RUNNING, and the adult novels EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME and CHASING THE SUN. Her first picture book, A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES, illustrated by Juana Medina, was published in 2024 from Penguin Random House. Her debut middle grade novel, NO WAY NEVER SISTERS (co-written with Chantel Acevedo) will be out in March 2026 from Simon & Schuster.
Photo credit: Eric Sylvester | Download hi-res image
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Image description: the book cover for A MALETA FULL OF TREASURES. The illustrated art features a little girl and her grandmother sitting on a pillow next to an open suitcase, from which a flurry of gifts (family photos, llama figurines, candies, birds, flowers, & dolls) flies all around them. Dulce looks lovingly at Abuela who smiles and raises one arm excitedly.
Book Covers & Image Descriptions
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Image description: la portada del libro LA MALETA DE TESOROS. El arte ilustrado muestra a una niña y su abuela sentadas en una almohada al lado de una maleta abierta, de la cual hay una avalancha de regalos (fotos familiares, figuras de llamas, dulces, pájaros, flores y muñecas) a su alrededor. Dulce le mira a su abuela con cariño, mientras que Abuela sonríe y levanta un brazo emocionada.
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Image description: the book cover for BREATHE AND COUNT BACK FROM TEN with a Schneider Family Honor book seal & a Pura Beloré honor book seal. Illustrated art of a brown-haired, light brown-skinned teen diving into a pool. She's wearing a pink two-piece suit & she has a long scar along her thigh & a smaller one over her pelvic bone. The water is blue & pink from the light & her shadow is mermaid-shaped against the pool floor.
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Image description: The cover of CHASING THE SUN. The art is a photograph of a street in the city of Lima, Peru seen through a rainbow-colored lens flare. The city has Spanish colonial-style buildings and a car is scene in the distance driving off.
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Image description: the book cover of NO WAY NEVER SISTERS. Its illustrations feature a purple background with a gold locket, which is open and heart-shaped, with a picture of a Latina girl on each side of the locket: one has curly brown hair and freckles, the other has dark brown hair in a side braid and brown eyes. One girl is frowning while the other rolls her eyes.
