First Draft Episode #256: Elizabeth Acevedo

Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X, winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land, out now!

This episode is brought to you by Highland 2, the writing software made by writers, for writers.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

• The Nuyorican Poets Cafe

• A handful of Elizabeth’s viral poems

• Anna Deavere Smith and Sarah Jones are both poets who had one woman shows, which inspired Elizabeth in college

• giovanni.com/">Nikki Giovanni, Tupac, Lucille Clifton were some poets who shaped Elizabeth

• Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming, I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This, and Red At the Bone

• Walter Dean Myers, author of Monster, Scorpions, and dozens more books

• Julia Alvarez, author of Before We Were Free, Return to Sender, and more

• Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and many more

• Phil Bildner, author of High Five For Glenn Burke, and Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans

• Angela Johnson’s Coretta Scott King-winning The First Part Last was dedicated to Elizabeth Acevedo

I want to hear from you!

Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.

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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

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