Elizabeth Acevedo discussed her latest young adult novel on WBZ News Boston.
Acevedo’s Anger Is Only a Shadow, set for publication next month by Quill Tree Books, tells the story of Liliana “Lil” Pantaleon-Ortiz, a 17-year-old girl in trouble with the law who is concerned about the mental health of her brother—but to visit him a few hours away would violate the terms of her probation.
The novel is a finalist for this year’s Kirkus Prize. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “an irresistible story of family connection, resilience, and loyalty.”
WBZ digital producer Riley Rourke asked Acevedo what the writing process for her novel was like.
“I became a mom three years ago, and a mom of two as of a year ago,” Acevedo said. “While I was writing and editing this book, I was pregnant or postpartum, and I…learned that my relationship to time had to change. I write very quickly and edit very slowly, but I had to write slowly and edit slowly.”
Rourke asked Acevedo about her experience doing poetry workshops at a juvenile correctional facility in Washington, D.C.
“So often, these young people were looking for opportunities to be vulnerable, for…someone to ask them not ‘What are you here for?’ or ‘How are you going to change your life when you get out?’ but, like, ‘Tell me the story of your name’ or ‘Tell me a memory of food you have that is related to someone you really love,’” she said. “It would open them up in ways that I think would astonish most people who have never been in those spaces and that have very stereotypical ideas of who are the young people who get incarcerated.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
