Rafael Alvarez, Writer for 'The Wire' Comes to DCAC on 7/11 to Kick Off Latest Book Tour

Rafael Alvarez, author and writer for "The Wire," comes to DCAC on July 11, to kick off his latest book tour

Molotov Theatre Group is please to bring author Rafael Alvarez, a former writer for the legendary HBO series "The Wire," to the DC Arts Center (DCAC) on July 11 to read selections from his new collection, "Basilio Boullosa Stars in the Fountain of Highlandtown."

The reading, which will also include a question and answer session with attendees, is free of charge in the Gallery at DCAC (2438 18th Street NW Washington, DC 20009). The reading will begin at 7 pm.

"Basilio Boullosa Stars in the Fountain of Highlandtown" is a mix of stories including such far-flung subjects as a junk man and his Greek lover, duck blood soup, flying John Lennon dolls, and a hot-air balloon shaped like the head of Elvis Presley. Basilio Boullosa is Alvarez's alter-ego, an artist who brings canvases to life at night while painting the side of seafood trucks by day to make ends meet.

A lifelong Baltimorean, Rafael Alvarez graduated with a degree in English from Loyola University of Maryland. For twenty years, he worked as a City Desk reporter for the Baltimore Sun. He quit the paper in 2001 to work as a laborer on cable ships and soon after began writing for HBO's police drama, The Wire. Since 2009, Alvarez has concentrated on writing books and screenplays for independent films.

Of Alvarez's new book, Guggenheim Fellow Deborah Rudacille writes, "Past and present converge in an eternal now for both writer and character, a now flavored with the ache of abandonment."

"Alvarez's characters are a particular kind of American-those restless souls who leave because they cannot stay but who refuse to surrender the sight, smell, taste, and touch of that which has been lost. They live in a permanent state of exile, a liminal world of the present shot through with the past, how enchanting the ache."