On Thursday April 28, 2022, author Elizabeth Acevedo visited Nantucket High School.
Elizabeth Acevedo is 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 holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Elizabeth is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her love.
Kaley Kokomoor, incoming NBF Executive Director, attended the event along with enthusiastic students and teachers.
"Elizabeth Acevedo was one of Nantucket High School's most highly anticipated Visiting Authors to date, and she did not disappoint! She began the day in thoughtful conversation with students in the High School library, where they discussed her novels and her characters' relatable struggles with religion, first love, and what it means to be the children of immigrant parents.
"Elizabeth's presentation to the entire school in the afternoon, filled with her wisdom and performances of her spoken word poetry, left students and teachers inspired. But it was the line of students who stayed to speak with her and show her their own poetry at the end of the day, some even coming to her in tears of appreciation at feeling seen and heard, that truly moved me and brought home the impact of a single author when she resonates with our youth," reported Kaley.
Maryann Vasquez-Cruz, 2019 Nantucket Book Foundation Young Writer Award Finalist and 2022 Nantucket Scholar, writes, “Authors like Acevedo have taught me the importance of using my voice, whether it’s written, spoken or done in action. To have a book, even an author, be just like me, of my culture, and has been through what I’ve been through. To feel through her verses in Poet X of Xiomara’s struggle to fit in in her family, at school and in the streets, all of that resonates to me. It is powerful what a book that relates to you can do. I have used her voice from her books and used it in ways to improve my own, and it has made great change in my life. Authors like her, books like us and for us, those are important for any student to read. To learn that in the sea of literature, there is that one book, a whole group of books, just for them.”
More reviews are in:
"She was very relatable. I think that what stood out to me the most was her personality and the way she spoke for the Hispanic community. Elizabeth also talked about her struggles as a child and how sometimes she had trouble getting along with her mother and understanding her family expectations, which is very common in the Hispanic community."~ Elsy Sosa, NHS Senior
"I enjoyed that it was more interactive and more like a conversation than a lecture. I could tell that other kids and I were paying more attention because of her mix of performances and talking to the crowd."~ Jake Haigh, NHS Freshman
"After the presentation, I had the opportunity to meet her during class and got her to sign my poster and take a picture with her. I felt really excited to meet her! She didn't only write about Hispanic/Latino people, she wrote about teenagers, the struggles that we go through, which sometimes not a lot of people are aware of. There was not a single time when I turned the page that I didn't want to read all of her words. She inspired me a lot!"~ Ashly Benavides, NHS Junior
