Elizabeth Acevedo author page

Elizabeth Acevedo biography

Elizabeth Acevedo is an American poet and author of books for young adults. Her published YA novels include The Poet X, With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land.

She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Her poetry background includes Cave Canem, CantoMundo and the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops, and she is a National Poetry Slam Champion.

The Poet X, published by HarperTeen in 2018, follows Xiomara Batista, a Harlem teenager who uses slam poetry to examine faith, family expectations and her own voice. The novel won the 2018 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.

Acevedo was the 2022 Young People’s Poet Laureate. Her novel With the Fire on High was named a book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal. Clap When You Land was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus Prize finalist.

Her next book, Anger Is Only a Shadow, is scheduled for publication on 15 September 2026.