November 2026 Feature: Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo was the 2022 Young People’s Poet Laureate and the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X.
Elizabeth Acevedo was the 2022 Young People’s Poet Laureate and the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie Medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist. Her next book, Anger Is Only a Shadow, was released on September 15, 2026. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion and resides in Washington, DC, with her family.
HEIRESS
After Firelei Baez’s given the ground (the fact that it amazes me does not mean I relinquish it, 2017)
adorned in incarnadine headdress / her mouth is a blank slate, but is not a comb / a mouth full of
teeth? / blades hidden in her tignon / the same needle / that threaded her headdress pierced her ear
/ azabache dangles feathers from an ear lobe / the fist as blessing, the fist as ancestor / woman
with cosmos gas / tatted on her shoulder, and throat, bright as magic / that does not require
tonguing / right cheekbone, starred and puce / she is grandmother of the turtled-shell forehead /
and framed in unpainted porcelain /she spawns a legion of heiresses
we count ourselves one, and one, and one
MAGNALIA
In the neonatal care unit the slippers the nurses gave me scritch the linoleum with every step
I am the wound of me gauze-less stitches need to breathe for the first few days I do not
know the shape of my son’s nose distorted by the nasal cannula I learn a lot of words
I learn all the human systems that need to lockstep in order for a babe to breathe
tomorrow momma is going to weep, it is going to all hit her the head doctor tells Shakir in the morning when the unrequested breakfast tray arrives an everything bagel sliced on its side
I count the smallness of each poppyseed stuck in the bread sesame seeds like slivers of nail beds bright under an incubator’s light
SELF PORTRAIT AS LILITH
some days you seem
so disappointed, love but you knew
what it was.
i am your dread wife.
you will not throw me out
of eden i walk myself to the door.
o!
there is no snake i plant the tree.
i pluck the apple i bite.
the pomegranate the passion fruit
whatever the fuck.
i am feast unto myself.
in this wilderness the feral things name me.
& i was raised to one day wash
my husband’s feet at night.
of course i molted made myself a woman
who unmakes home.
refused to be whittled to a fine point
but you like me piercing.
beloved i will not
only writhe when coming.
my vow: break through every shell fully impossible.
your vow: lap every slick of the yolk.
THE INTERVIEW
This interview was conducted between Elizabeth Acevedo and Jae Nichelle on August 27, 2026.
These poems are incredible; thank you so much for sharing them. Can you speak to the moments that birthed “Heiress”? What was your first reaction entering Firelei Baez’s exhibit?
I was a couple of months postpartum when the National Gallery of Art had an exhibit titled Afro-Atlantic Histories. Her piece “given the ground (the fact that it amazes me does not mean I relinquish it, 2017)” took up almost an entire wall. There was a bench placed in front of it, and probably on three separate occasions I visited that piece and just sat with it. I was moved by the details, the headwrap, the comb, the galaxy with fuchsia pop painted onto the skin, the missing mouth–the mouth I imagined. Something in my womb-wound body wanted to commune with her.
That final image of “Magnalia” is so evocative. At what point in the drafting process of this poem did you know you would end here?
Okay, I just realized that all these poems are tinged with my postpartum experience! I tried to put language to those early days of having my son, and him needing to be in the NICU. Childbirth is so, so huge, and the baby is so, so small. I would stick my hand in through the bassinet hole on the side, and let him wrap his tiny fist around my finger. You know, their nails aren't hardened when they’re first born. The nails are soft, peelable, smaller than a grain of rice. Which is to say, I had no idea that the final image would be the final image. I didn’t know this would be a poem. I was trying to language the vastness and the small gestures; what fed me and allowed me to feed him. The splitting, splitness, of practicing motherhood in those early days.
What was different for you about the process of writing your new book, Anger is Only a Shadow, from your previous books? What did you have to learn before you could write it?
I had to learn a different relationship to time. Both the time it took to process my brother’s illness, which this novel pulls from, and the time it took to revise, and revise, and revise again. To surrender myself without impatience to the language. I used to say I had to write fast enough to outrace my anxiety. But with this novel I had to write slow, invite my anxiety to sit and rest, and not bother me until I was done. I also had to try and figure out the prose poem. How does one balance narrative and language and the trappings of the sentence?
In a 2020 Oprah Daily Interview, you mentioned wanting to be “thoughtful about pushing against the expectations” when it came to your second book. Is that still something you consider when drafting? How much do you consider your audience and readers when thinking about what to do next? Or is that too much of a distraction?
Nah. I follow the ideas, the language, the urgency of a story pulsating beneath my skin and itching for me to write it. I think that what makes an artist and audience relationship special is that the artist creates from a place of what thrills and haunts them, and then an audience that didn’t even know they wanted to be thrilled and haunted is moved by the offering.
I’d love to know: What was the most memorable poetry slam you ever attended? What do you wish you’d known at the time?
The Women of the World Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas, 2014 was really special. I hadn’t competed individually as an adult, and it brought me into the community of slam in a way that was really meaningful. So many incredible writers and thinkers! I don’t think I broke the top twenty-five that year, but I learned a lot about myself and about how spoken word in that space had grown from when I’d been a young person. How incredible to be surrounded by so many competitive and creative women!
You said in a LitHub interview that you love the cooking show Chopped. Do you think you could beat your culinary-trained character Emoni in a Chopped competition? Out of all the characters you’ve written, who would place second and third?
Ha! This is such a fun question! I think Emoni would kick my ass if she was able to keep things timed tightly. I’ve been preparing to be on Chopped my whole life, though. I know exactly what I would make for the entree and dessert regardless of what ingredients I’m given–so I’m ready! I would say that my girl Yadi from Family Lore is an incredible vegan chef and would place second, and Tía from Clap When You Land would probably take third if she’s able to pull off a sancocho with the basket ingredients.
What in D.C. keeps you inspired?
I love the skyline here. How low it is. I have so much sky. I love the water–the Tidal Basin, the Potomac, and the Anacostia River. I love the museums and that they are free and that they welcome us. I love the metro, the fashion; D.C. has a relationship to color and structure that’s unlike anywhere else.
How can people support you right now?
Order Anger is Only a Shadow!
Name another Black woman writer people should know.
Eve Ewing. Amber McBride. Naima Coster.
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