Elizabeth Acevedo is an Afro-Dominican poet, author, National Poetry Slam Champion, and activist. Her poetry is mixed with Dominican culture and New York grit. She is the author of New York Time-bestseller The Poet X, With Fire on High, and Clap When You Land. The Poet X is a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature winner, Michael L. Printz Award winner, Pura Belpré Award winner, Carnegie medal winner, Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner, and Walter Award winner. With Fire on High was named best 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 finalist. Acevedo’s poems have been published in Poetry, Puerto Del Sol, Callaloo, Poet Lore, The Notre Dame Review, and others. Acevedo is a Cantomundo Fellow, Cave Canem Fellow, participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She has given TedTalks and performed at famous venues including The Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, South Africa’s State Theatre, The Bozar in Brussels, the National Library of Kosovo, etc. Acevedo’s poetry videos have been featured in Latina Magazine, Cosmopolitan, the Huffington Post, and Upworthy. She also works with incarcerated women and with teenagers as a visiting instructor at an adjudicated youth center in Washington, DC. Acevedo was born of Dominican immigrants and raised in the predominantly Dominican and Puerto Rican neighborhood of Morningside Heights, New York. At 12, she wanted to be a rapper before discovering her love for poetry. While attending the Beacon School, her English teacher recruited her to the after-school poetry club. By 14, she competed in her first poetry slam at the Nuyorican Poets Café, and then participated in open mics around the city. Acevedo holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. She also served as an adjunct professor for bachelor level creative writing courses. As an eight grade teacher, she asked why her students were not reading more. When the response she got was, “these books aren’t about us”, Acevedo bought books they could relate too. When they read all of the books, she realized she had the power to write those books too. She realized that her students were not incapable, but affected by the lack of diversity in their books. Elizabeth Acevedo’s message is that the stories of those, who didn’t grow up seeing themselves as the main characters, are just as important. To learn more about Elizabeth Acevedo, visit her website: http://www.acevedowrites.com References: http://www.acevedowrites.com/about https://secure2.convio.net/gwu/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=117772 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Acevedo

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