About Nancy Alvarez

Nancy Alvarez began writing at Sarah Lawrence College. After graduate school in Russian History she was hired by the Follett Publishing Company to write a book about alternative high schools, which was never published because of a disagreement between the publisher and the eight schools included in the manuscript. Undaunted, Nancy continued to write articles for the New York Times Magazine and Cosmopolitan. After moving to Los Angeles with her first husband, she was hired to write episodes of “The Waltons” and “Movin’ On” as well as several television movies, including “Sharon: Portrait of a Mistress.” None of the features she developed for Paramount, Fox or Disney were ever made, a typical phenomenon in 1970’s Hollywood. Her first novel, “Ladycat” was published by Crown in 1980, NAL doing the paperback, and purchased by Universal Studios to be made into a movie. She started teaching screen writing at UCLA in 1988, going on to teach in the Masters of Professional Writing at USC as well. After moving to Seattle she taught at Bellevue Community College, North Seattle Community College, and Seattle Central Community College. For more than five years she and videographer Dana Scheurholz facilitated video workshops for adjudicated youth in Jefferson and Clallam Counties, as well as for the Port Townsend Film Festival. She continues to teach private screen writing classes in Port Townsend, Washington. She is currently working on a multi-generational novel set in Austria, Poland, New York and New Jersey.