During her senior year at MICA, Dominican-American student Camille Gomera-Tavarez ’19 (Graphic Design BFA, Creative Writing Minor) was tasked with creating a minor’s thesis. Her work — several short stories about the Dominican diaspora — eventually became High Spirits, a young adult book published by Levine Querido with Chronicle Books in 2022.
Named a Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Book, High Spirits is centered on one extended family across multiple generations. Set in the fictional town of Hidalpa, as well as real-life locations from Santo Domingo to Washington Heights, the book explores themes of mental health, machismo, family, and identity.
Point of View
Alumna’s exploration of the Dominican diaspora while at MICA becomes young adult title.
Cover of “High Spirits” by Camille Gomera-Tavarez. Courtesy of the aritst.
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Class "MICAPrograms" not found in /var/www/vhosts/testing.mica.edu/custom/inc/required/utils.php:319 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/vhosts/testing.mica.edu/templates/layouts/default.php(164): MICA\Utils::getRelatedMeta() #1 /var/www/vhosts/testing.mica.edu/custom/router.php(593): include('...') #2 /var/www/vhosts/testing.mica.edu/bigtree/core/launch.php(140): include('...') #3 /var/www/vhosts/testing.mica.edu/site/index.php(3): include('...') #4 {main} thrown in /var/www/vhosts/testing.mica.edu/custom/inc/required/utils.php on line 319