The much-lauded Elizabeth Acevedo, author of The Poet X and other titles, is back this fall with Anger Is Only a Shadow (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, Sept. 15). In this complex, heartrending verse novel, Liliana Pantaleon-Ortiz, 17, is caught up in the juvenile justice system, whose restrictions clash with her desire to spend time with a new crush and be present for her brother, Aldwin, who’s struggling with serious mental health issues at college. Loving family dynamics, rich language, and unflinching emotional honesty make this book a standout. Acevedo answered our questions by email.

What planted the seed for this book?

From 2014 to 2015, I worked as a teaching artist at the Youth Services Center in Washington, D.C. I led poetry workshops for young people awaiting adjudication. I was moved by the vulnerability, the lived experiences. A girl might be quiet the whole class and then volunteer to read her poem and tear the house down. I didn’t always know what brought each girl to this detention center. But my first job in that space was to listen: to what they said, to what they didn’t say, to the requests they didn’t even know they were making for the kinds of exemplar poems that might make an impact. When the character of Lil began making herself known, I wasn’t surprised that a decade after my teaching-artist experience, certain memories and questions began to shape her story.

One thing that struck me was the deep love and compassion for Lil that’s evident in her portrayal.

One of the books that helped guide this novel is bell hooks’ All About Love. She describes what it means to be guided by a love ethic: the active, intentional practice of care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. When I first started writing, Lil was straight up messy, but the closer I got to what she felt when she made big decisions, the more clearly I was able to know her and thus be tender toward her.

What inspired you while you were writing?

I turned in the first draft of this novel six weeks after finding out I was pregnant with my second child. I was so tired and nauseated and full of brain fog, but I was also driven to write. For some people, pregnancy causes them to engage in nesting that involves decorating the nursery or washing breast pump parts, but for me, nesting manifested as an intense need to finish every writing project on my desk. Your girl was generative.

What did you find most challenging—and most rewarding—about writing this book?

In the first draft, Lil’s brother, Aldwin, wasn’t on the page much. When two beta readers mentioned that he seemed absent in a way that didn’t serve the story, it made me realize that my shying away from more concretely depicting Aldwin was less a craft choice and more a way to create comfortable emotional distance for myself. Showing his character earlier was like adding coffee to a chocolate cake—it deepened the story in unexpected way.

What fall 2026 releases are you most eager to read?

There are so many heavy hitters that I need to clear a dedicated bookshelf. Some I’m most excited for are Julian Randall’s Shook, Renée Watson’s Everything New Again, Sabaa Tahir’s Empire, Ari Tison’s Together We See, Amaris Castillo’s Bodega Stories, Edwidge Danticat’s Dèy, Deesha Philyaw’s The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, and The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires.

Laura Simeon is a young readers' editor.