Yolanda Alvarez

Located in downtown Pawtucket, Stillwater Books was opened late last winter by Steven and Dawn Porter, founders of the Association of Rhode Island Authors (ARIA). The store features all sorts of books, both new and used, though the owners place a special emphasis on titles by local authors and those published by the Porters’ Stillwater Press imprint. Yolanda Alvarez was born in the Bronx to a neglectful mother and an abusive alcoholic father. Now a grandmother, Alvarez still lives in New York. No Excuses is a memoir about her upbringing, and how she became the person she is today.