Were Julia Alvarez and Raymond Queneau novelists?
yes
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau (] ; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ("Ouvroir de littérature potentielle"), notable for his wit and cynical humour.
Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist.
 She rose to prominence with the novels "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" (1991), "In the Time of the Butterflies" (1994), and "Yo!"
 (1997).
 Her publications as a poet include "Homecoming" (1984) and "The Woman I Kept to Myself" (2004), and as an essayist the autobiographical compilation "Something to Declare" (1998).
 Many literary critics regard her to be one of the most significant Latina writers and she has achieved critical and commercial success on an international scale.
William Cliff
William Cliff (born André Imberechts, 27 December 1940) is a Francophone Belgian poet.
 He was born in Gembloux.
 His poems had the chance to be noticed quickly by Raymond Queneau, and were systematically published by Gallimard until 1986.
 Cliff won the Prix Goncourt de la Poésie in 2014. Les Lettres Françaises
Les Lettres Françaises (French for "French Letters") is a French literary publication, founded in 1941 by writers Jacques Decour and Jean Paulhan.
 Originally a clandestine magazine of the French Resistance in German-occupied territory, it was one of the many publications of the National Front resistance movement.
 It received contributions from Louis Aragon, François Mauriac, Claude Morgan, Edith Thomas, Georges Limbour, Raymond Queneau and Jean Lescure. Ouxpo
Ouxpo is an acronym for "Ouvroir d'X Potentielle".
 It is an umbrella group for Oulipo, Oubapo, Outrapo, etc.
 The term 'ouvroir', originally used in conjunction with works of charity, was reused by Raymond Queneau for a blend of 'ouvroir' and 'œuvre' ("work") and roughly corresponds to the English 'workshop'.
 The term 'potentiel' is used in the sense of that "which is possible, or realisable if one follows certain rules". Prix Sainte-Beuve
The Prix Sainte-Beuve, established in 1946, is a French literary prize awarded each year to a writer in the categories "novels" (or "poetry") and "essays" (or "critics"); it is named after the writer Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve.
 The founding jury included Raymond Aron, Maurice Blanchot, , Maurice Nadeau, Jean Paulhan and Raymond Queneau. Exercises in Style
Exercises in Style (French: "Exercices de style" ), written by Raymond Queneau, is a collection of 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style.
 In each, the narrator gets on the "S" bus (now no. 84), witnesses an altercation between a man (a zazou) with a long neck and funny hat and another passenger, and then sees the same person two hours later at the Gare St-Lazare getting advice on adding a button to his overcoat.
 The literary variations recall the famous 33rd chapter of the 1512 rhetorical guide by Desiderius Erasmus, "". Oulipo
Oulipo (] , short for French: "Ouvroir de littérature potentielle" ; roughly translated: ""workshop of potential literature"") is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques.
 It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais.
 Other notable members have included novelists Georges Perec and Italo Calvino, poets Oskar Pastior, Jean Lescure and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud. Oubapo
Oubapo (] , short for French: "Ouvroir de bande dessinée potentielle" ; roughly translated: ""workshop of potential comic book art"") is a comics movement which believes in the use of formal constraints to push the boundaries of the medium.
 OuBaPo is styled after the French literary movement Oulipo ("Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle"), founded by Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec.
 Oubapo was founded in November 1992 in the Ou-X-Po and announced in L'Association's French comics edition. Hundred Thousand Billion Poems
A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems or One hundred million million poems (original French title: "Cent mille milliards de poèmes") is a book by Raymond Queneau, published in 1961.
 The book is a set of ten sonnets printed on card with each line on a separate strip.
 As all ten sonnets have not just the same rhyme scheme but the same rhyme sounds, any lines from a sonnet can be combined with any from the nine others, allowing for 10 (= 100,000,000,000,000) different poems.
 When Queneau ran into trouble creating the book, he solicited the help of mathematician Francois Le Lionnais, and in the process they initiated Oulipo.