‘Spirit Run’ Author Noé Álvarez ’07 To Read at Whitman
The Whitman alum returns to campus this week as a featured author for the Visiting Writers Reading Series
By Zoe Perkins ’25
Noé Álvarez ’07 will return to Whitman College on Thursday, Oct. 24, to read for the Visiting Writers Reading Series at 6 p.m. in Kimball Theatre in Hunter Conservatory.
Author of “Accordion Eulogies” (2024) and “Spirit Run” (2020), Álvarez graduated from Whitman with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. His work mainly focuses on his and his family’s heritage as Mexican immigrants to the U.S. It is also informed by his experiences growing up in a farmworker family in Yakima, Washington, and being the first in his family to go to college.
His first book, “Spirit Run,” is a memoir reflecting on an experience he had partway through his time at Whitman when he took time off to participate in a Peace and Dignity Journey (PDJ), a months-long group run from Canada to Guatemala. PDJ runs are intended to reconnect Indigenous people from across the Western Hemisphere with nature and spirituality. Álvarez explores that reconnection in his book.
“Spirit Run” made a notable splash in mainstream news outlets when it was published. It was featured in The New York Times, NBC News, The Guardian and more. In these articles, he often discusses his struggles to communicate through language. He told CBC in 2021, “I wanted to find a language that I didn't have growing up speaking English and Spanish and living in a sort of middle world. And so running was an ability for me to express the things that were inside of me.”
The author’s most recent work, “Accordion Eulogies,” recounts his experience exploring his family history by journeying into Mexico with his accordion. Along the way, he unearths not just a story about his family, but one of an underestimated yet incredibly important instrument.
Álvarez will read from his work and answer questions. The event is open to the Whitman community and the public.
More on the Series
The Visiting Writers Reading Series will include seven visiting writers this academic year over the course of six events, as well as one event each semester for current creative writing students to share their work. The series is sponsored by Whitman’s English Department, the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, the Lawrence Parke Murphy and Robert Goldstein Trust, and generous donors.