Elizabeth Acevedo Biography

Poet and novelist Elizabeth Acevedo was born in 1988 in New York City as a first-generation American child of Dominican immigrants. A former National Poetry Slam Champion, Acevedo earned her BA in performing arts from The George Washington University. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland.

Acevedo is the author of the poetry chapbook Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths (2016). Her novel in verse, The Poet X (2018), became a New York Times best seller and won the 2018 National Book Award for Young Adult Fiction, the Horn Book Prize for Fiction and Poetry, and the Carnegie Medal. With the Fire on High (2019) was recognized as a “best book of the year” by the New York Public Library and several major publications. Clap When You Land (2020) received a Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards honor.