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Natalia Sylvester

@nataliasylv.bsky.social
991 followers 366 following 58 posts

Author of novels: BREATHE & COUNT BACK FROM TEN, RUNNING & more. Pura Belpré & Schneider award honoree. Disabled Latina immigrant. 🇵🇪🇺🇸Bookings: @hownowbooking

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Reposted by Natalia Sylvester
Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
One way to honor Dolly’s legacy: get your covid vaccine this year! www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/...
washingtonpost.com
Dolly Parton helped fund Moderna’s vaccine. It began with a car crash and an unlikely friendship.
“Without a doubt in my mind, her funding made the research toward the vaccine go 10 times faster than it would be without it,” physician Naji Abumrad said of his friend.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
2 signed copies of my books are available via this auction for @celestepewter.bsky.social ! Please share & donate!
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Eric Sylvester @ericsylvester.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Big Up to @news.sky.com for keepin’ it real and asking the right question on everyone’s mind. #OurFoodIsToast
Screenshot from Sky News of the Maniac in Chief - asking if It is still safe to eat in America.
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Greg Andree @gregandree71.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
"What the world will inherit from you lies in a million small moments: It’s in the ballots you cast, the questions you ask, in the people you apologize to, in the power you refuse to abuse. It’s in the people you decline to treat as disposable, and who you choose to lift up instead of putting down."
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Even when they’re based on us, writing characters is a craft. I’m teaching a course on writing semi-autobiographical characters & how to create distance while also nourishing a deeply rooted connection. May 24, to register: mccormackwritingcenter.org/product/writ...
mccormackwritingcenter.org
Writing Semi-Autobiographical Characters with Natalia Sylvester - McCormack Writing Center
Writing Semi-Autobiographical Characters with Natalia Sylvester
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Even when they’re based on us, writing characters is a craft. I’m teaching a course on writing semi-autobiographical characters & how to create distance while also nourishing a deeply rooted connection. May 24, to register: mccormackwritingcenter.org/product/writ...
mccormackwritingcenter.org
Writing Semi-Autobiographical Characters with Natalia Sylvester - McCormack Writing Center
Writing Semi-Autobiographical Characters with Natalia Sylvester
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Greg Andree @gregandree71.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
That's awesome! I just started No Way Never Sisters, and am already looking forward to another collaboration from Natalia Sylvester and Chantel Acevedo. 🙌
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Children's Bookshelf @pwkidsbookshelf.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Announcing new deals for @yanawroteit.bsky.social @tswitherspoon.bsky.social @jerameykraatz.bsky.social @nataliasylv.bsky.social + more buff.ly/OlJTxl6
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
✨ It’s PW official! ✨🚢 We’re writing another book together!! It’s inspired not only by the excitement & awkwardness of first love, but also the unique joy of having cousins—primas hermanas—who help you navigate the ups and downs of growing up. 🥹💜 Chantel & I can’t wait for you to meet Isa & Adri!!
Jessica Smith at Aladdin has bought
world English rights to Once Upon a Dreamboat by Chantel Acevedo (l.) and Natalia Sylvester (co-authors of No Way Never Sisters), a middle grade rom-com about two cousins who meet a romance novelist aboard a cruise ship and use her expertise to try to land dates to the ship's teen dance. Publication is planned for spring 2028;
Stéphanie Abou at Massie, McQuilkin & Altman represented Acevedo, and Laura Dail at Laura Dail Literary Agency represented Sylvester.
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Laura Dail Literary Agency @ldlainc.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Happy pub day to NO WAY NEVER SISTERS by @nataliasylv.bsky.social and Chantel Acevedo!
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
No Way Never Sisters, the MG novel that Chantel Acevedo& I co-wrote, is officially out! It’s a reverse parent trap book about 2 rivals who scheme to break up their parents’ engagement. My pups think you should get a copy (well, at least one of them does). bookshop.org/p/books/no-w...
A black dog sitting next to two books, looking confused.A chihuahua laying next to two books, yawning.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Psst…NO WAY NEVER SISTERS is coming out in hardcover AND paperback so we’re doing a giveaway of both! ✨2 winners will get a signed set of books each for them & a friend! Coming March 10📚enter on IG: www.instagram.com/p/DVZHCSykV4...
A stack of No Way Never Sisters. the illustrated cover has a purple background featuring 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.
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Eric Sylvester @ericsylvester.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
Costco has Fraser Firs for $13. Isss X-Mas miracle!
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Ecstatic to share my next novel for adults—about 3 generations of women on a mission to expose a corrupt HOA board in Miami—will be out in 2027 from Little, Brown! Thank you to my amazing agent Laura Dail for finding the perfect home for this book with the brilliant Vivian Lee!
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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
The only truly ethical response that a self-described artist can make. Anything else is a betrayal of one's colleagues.
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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
democrats have a duty right now to loudly remind the military they are required by law to refuse unconstitutional orders
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Stephen O’Shea @architectgp.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
This is spot on. Our capitulation to the ‘inevitability’ of AI couldn’t come at a worse time.
Screenshot of a paragraph of this essay.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
One of my favorite things to do at school visits or story times for A Maleta Full of Treasures is talk about how my picture book is a result of teamwork. I show students Juana Medina’s picture & say, “can we give her a big round of applause?!” It starts things off with such fun energy!
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
We wrote a Latina reverse parent trap MG novel with big-hearted characters navigating scoliosis, anxiety, & overwhelming life changes. Librarians, booksellers, teachers & reviewers, request ARCs of NO WAY NEVER SISTERS, co-written by Chantel Acevedo & me, at the link! forms.gle/H7Bh7ap7W7GH...
forms.gle
No Way Never Sisters ARC requests
Thanks so much for your interest in No Way Never Sisters, coming March 10, 2026 from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster! Please fill out the form below to request an ARC. (P.S. Add to Goodreads, too!) You ma...
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
We wrote a Latina reverse parent trap MG novel with big-hearted characters navigating scoliosis, anxiety, & overwhelming life changes. Librarians, booksellers, teachers & reviewers, request ARCs of NO WAY NEVER SISTERS, co-written by Chantel Acevedo & me, at the link! forms.gle/H7Bh7ap7W7GH...
forms.gle
No Way Never Sisters ARC requests
Thanks so much for your interest in No Way Never Sisters, coming March 10, 2026 from Aladdin/Simon & Schuster! Please fill out the form below to request an ARC. (P.S. Add to Goodreads, too!) You ma...
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Ariella Elm @ariellaelm.com · 17/09/2025
This story is not getting the attention it deserves in fact it should be so shocking that it took over the CK story at this point. However, you would be hard pressed to find more than a couple people who even know what happened
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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 17/09/2025
Shop Loyalty to support 💙 bookshop.org/shop/loyalty
bookshop.org
Loyalty Bookstores Bookshop
Loyalty is a Black, Queer, and Asian owned independent bookstore in Silver Spring, MD and in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, DC. We believe in providing diverse reads, community programming, ...
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
Years ago someone told me not to write Latine characters unless I had a “reason” to. Hi!! Five books (& counting later) my reason is that we exist & we’re not going anywhere & our stories deserve to be told & celebrated unapologetically 365 days a year. Happy Latinx Heritage Month!
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Khadijah Queen @khadijahqueen.com · 24/08/2025
I’m still alive. The earth is still alive. Language is still alive. If you can’t find any beauty where you are, you can still make it. Took 20 years to get this story out. I hope you’ll read it 💙🩵 www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/khadi...
Image of Khadijah in a cozy living room, wearing a red and white flowered dress with white buttons and a V-neck and 3/4 sleeves. Her skin is brown, her hair is salt and pepper and curly, her lipstick is red and she is smiling.Image of a purple flowering tree in front of blue sky, and a home with a tiled roofKhadijah‘s book, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran’s Memoir, which has a dark blue cover with turquoise and lilac lettering, on top of colorful tiles. The background tile colors are dark, blue, yellow, green, orange and beige, mostly
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
So proud of my husband & his first audiobook narration!
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Leticia Urieta @leticiaasu.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
I have 2 copies of my first book from @flowersongpress.bsky.social, Las Criaturas, and one of my zines to giveaway to anyone who donates $10 or more the Sameer Project to help folks in Gaza access food, water and other supplies: chuffed.org/project/1132...
A standing copy of Las Criaturas by Leticia Urieta on a tall wooden table with more copies lying beside it and a photo of Leticia with her name displayed above.
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Nicole Zelniker @nicolezelniker.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
In final days of Disability Pride Month, I thought now was the perfect time to introduce y'all to Kai and rec a few disabled books I've loved over the last few years. Books listed: Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera and Breathe & Count Back From Ten by @nataliasylv.bsky.social❤️ More recs⬇️
My forthcoming novella, We Are Made of Scars & Starlight, features a protagonist who lives with chronic pain from lupus as well as depression. Here are some other disabled books I recommend and a little bit about them ...First, about the book: When 25-year-old Kai Larssen agrees to be his best friend Mariah's date to a family function, he meets Ray, Mariah's twin brother and the forever anxious, frustratingly sexy man of Kai's dreams - whom Kai can never come out to for fear of outing Mariah.
When Kai returns to the city, he starts spending more time with Ray and spins a web of lies that means he may end up losing one of the most important people in his life forever.Juliet Takes A Breath (asthma rep) and Breathe & Count Back From Ten (hip dysplasia and depression rep)
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Allison Stalberg @stalbergwrites.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
I loved the docuseries, "MerPeople," and this book got into that same territory from the mechanics of performance to the history of it in Florida. This is an especially good read for folks that want to see more immigrant and disability representation! Thank you @nataliasylv.bsky.social for writing!
Book overview for BREATHE AND COUNT BACK TO TEN. 

Genre: Contemporary YA
Themes: Theme park mermaids, following your dreams, disability, 1st gen immigrant pressures. Content warnings: Ableism, Body shaming, Sexual Harrassment, Misogyny, Medical content. 

Representation: Peruvian-American protag, Protag has hip dysplasia

Setting: Florida

Form: First person single POVQuote: 

 “And it’s weird, because even though I know she’s talking about mermaids and air and the magic of making them seem real, the way she said crutch makes me feel like needing one is a bad thing. Like maybe the “magic” isn’t just about believing in mermaids; it’s about believing people like me don’t exist. Like maybe admitting I’ve needed crutches dispels the myths we want to believe about people. That we’re not perfect. That our bodies have needs. That this doesn’t make us any less real. Any less human.”
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Heartbroken.
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Andrew Hume @andrewhume.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
"When a human dies the soul moves through the universe trying to describe how a body trembles when it’s lost, softens when it’s safe, how a wound would heal given nothing but time. I can’t imagine it, the stars say. Tell us again about goosebumps. Tell us again about pain." --Andrea Gibson, Tincture
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
We have a cover! NO WAY NEVER SISTERS, the enemies-to-bffs/sisters MG novel I co-wrote with @chantelacevedo_author, is out 3/10 in hardcover & paperback! Illustrated by @solenedebies designed by Laura Lyn DiSiena. www.simonandschuster.com/books/No-Way... goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/23...
illustrated cover of No Way Never Sisters with purple background featuring 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.
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Laura Lippman @lauralippman.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Y'all, Desiree knows what she's talking about, she has written a historical novel that is sadly prescient/timely. sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2025/06/...
sites.lsa.umich.edu
Understanding the history of deportation: a review of Désirée Zamorano’s “Dispossessed”
“Manuel wondered why everyone was so fucking afraid of Mexicans.” It is 1992. Manuel joins his daughter to protest Prop 187 at City Hall in Los Angeles. That same year, I marched with other student…
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Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
If any of these are your reps, please take 5 min today and call. Scripts and numbers at 5calls.org. Kill this absolute travesty of a bill.
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Preeti Chhibber @runwithskizzers.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
"You cannot “opt out” of reality, no matter what today’s majority opinion states. These books belong on shelves and these stories belong in classrooms and curricula." 🔥🔥🔥
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Lauren Theisen @laurentheisen.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
I can barely express how gutwrenching it is to steal health care away from trans kids and essentially force them into conversion therapy defector.com/on-bridges?g...
Dysphoria and all the surrounding feelings are notoriously difficult to describe clearly, so here is the best metaphor I can come up with for what I want to talk about. Imagine, when you were a kid, that there was an intersection in your neighborhood that you regularly had to walk across, and it was a dangerous endeavor every time: There's no crosswalk, the cars don't respect speed limits, and everyone runs red lights or turns without looking. You did what you could to survive these perilous journeys, but maybe not every kid got to the other side unscathed.Imagine, then, that years later you passed through your old hometown and found that, since you left, a stylish pedestrian bridge had been built at this intersection. You see a bunch of kids, and they're laughing with each other as they use it to cross safely, not even aware of all the times that you, years ago, just barely missed getting smashed by a car.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Before merMay ends & Hip Dysplasia Awareness Month begins, fyi I have the perfect book for both! 🧜‍♀️📚💜 Breathe and Count From Ten is about a disabled Peruvian American teen’s summer of first love, mermaid auditions & advocating for her body. Get a copy & share this post! bookshop.org/p/books/brea...
a hand holds the book against a floral mural and swimming pool. The cover features a teen with surgery scars along her hip diving into a pool. Her shadow is mermaid shaped.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Teachers & librians, I’m booking author visits for grades K-12 for 2025-2026! From storytimes to writing workshops & gen assemblies, I share my path of becoming an author as a disabled Latina immigrant with students of all ages. For more info: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Author visits - Natalia Sylvester
Thank you for your interest in booking Natalia Sylvester for a speaking engagement for your school, university, or organization. Please feel out the form below and someone will respond within 1 - 2 bu...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Shout out to the disabled community for always showing up, always being on the right side of history and justice, always willing to put their bodies on the line, all for the cause of making sure *everyone* has the basic dignity of health care.
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José Pablo Iriarte @labyrinthrat.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Hey, this business really messes with my head, so just a quick reminder that I have a book coming out in June, if a funny pirate ghost story starring middle grade kids sounds like your jam.
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Authors Against Book Bans @authorsabb.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Members @maggietokudahall.bsky.social @redgoldsparks.bsky.social & Lauren Gao put together this resource sheet to help you engage with government officials (& anyone else) working to ban books. docs.google.com/document/u/0...
docs.google.com
What to Say When They Say: (What They Always Say)
What to Say When They Say: (What They Always Say) I haven’t read this book but I don’t think it’s appropriate for children! Please read the full book before you judge it. Passages are often presente...
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Désirée Zamorano @ladeziree.latinsky.app · 18/04/2025
Seamus Heaney, via @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social History says, don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.
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Désirée Zamorano @ladeziree.latinsky.app · 13/04/2025
Gentle reminder of how energy-efficient the human brain is.
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Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Beautiful statement of why protesting matters, even if it feels like you aren't making much headway. You're not just speaking to power. You're speaking to others and making it possible for them to join in.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Thinking of the language of defeat & hopelessness & how that shapes our reality. If language & storytelling weren’t so powerful they wouldn’t have weaponized disinformation so effectively. They want us panicked, not informed. If we manage to be hopeful & inspired & protect our joy AND informed? Oof.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Watering my garden time has become my calling my reps time. Something so nourishing to me about this specific kind of multitasking.
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Carmen 📚 Latinx Book Influencer 📚 @tomesandtextiles.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
AI can’t imagine a future humanity hasn’t already conceived of because its output is our stolen art and work. It doesn’t think past what we’ve already created.
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Natalia Sylvester @nataliasylv.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
My heart is so happy seeing Juana’s beautiful work celebrated this way!! Felicidades, Juana, thank you for bringing this story to life so tenderly!
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