Before becoming a bestselling author and National Poetry Slam champion, Elizabeth Acevedo was an eighth-grade English teacher in Maryland, struggling to get her students — many of whom were Black and Latinx — to engage with reading. After a student told her, “these books aren’t about us,” Acevedo recognized how a lack of representation in literature could leave young readers feeling unseen. She began bringing books into the classroom that reflected her students’ lives, and realized she too could write stories that felt like home. That experience sparked her debut novel, The Poet X, which follows a young Dominican-American girl who finds her voice through poetry.
Raised in Harlem by Dominican immigrant parents, Acevedo had dreamed of becoming a rapper before discovering spoken-word poetry. She competed in her first slam at just 14 and went on to study performing arts and creative writing before entering the classroom as a Teach for America Corps participant. Since then, she’s been crowned Young People’s Poet Laureate and built a celebrated body of work — including With the Fire on High, Clap When You Land, Family Lore and Anger Is Only a Shadow — exploring identity, family, culture, and belonging.
To mark 2024’s Hispanic Heritage Month, Acevedo shared 5 book recommendations with Good Morning America that honor the voices, histories, and experiences of Latinx communities. From a sweeping poetry anthology spanning five centuries to tender stories of chosen family, intergenerational memory, and the women who raise us, her picks reflect the many ways literature can preserve cultural heritage, challenge inherited narratives, and help us better understand ourselves and each another. Check out Acevedo’s reading list below, and dive into the bookshelves of other literary luminaries here.
Elizabeth Acevedo’s Reading List
Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology edited by Rigoberto González
“González had a tall order to fulfill when putting together this anthology of poetry that represents some of the best Latino poets in American Letters. Spanning five centuries, and representing the work of 180 poets, this collection is as much literary riot as it is reference text. This is a landmark literary feat, and features the likes of José Martí, Juan Felipe Herrera, and Lorna Dee Cervantes, Pedro Pietri, Sandra Cisneros, highlight Javier Zamora, Aracelis Girmay, Natalie Diaz, and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón.” -EA
Tías and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
“In a gentle but no holds-bar approach, Mojica Rodriguez writes towards those of us who were raised with and by extremely strong women figures who were pushed into traditional archetypes of femininity. Her focus on the inheritance of colonial stereotypes that have wounded Latin American women (and the diaspora) for centuries, this book is heartwarming and how it shows grace and healing as it works to deconstruct the labels often imposed on Latinas.” -EA
LOCA by Alejandro Heredia
“Sal and Charo feel stuck. Dominican immigrants, both in their mid-twenties, they are best friends with goals that always seem slightly out of reach. In a novel that is as tender as it is brilliant, Heredia chronicles with clear-eyed observations the highs and heartbreaks of having a chosen family, a dream you can’t quite take the leap for, and loves that have been lost but never fully mourned. Heredia writes with ferocity and warmth, and this novel will leave you deeply impacted.” -EA
Angelica and La Güira by Angie Cruz, illustrated by Luz Batista
“Angelica and La Güira is a vibrant picture book by literary powerhouse, Angie Cruz. Angelica returns back home to New York City from the Dominican Republic, but is nostalgic for the time she spent with her grandparents and the land that raised her parents. Thankfully, she doesn’t return to Washington Heights empty-handed, she has with her a güira that was gifted to her by her grandfather. With this Taino instrument in hand, Angelica works to find how she can make the kind of music that will bridge the two homes she holds in heart.” -EA
The River is my Ocean by Rio Cortez and illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin
“Beautifully illustrated, and lovingly written, The River is my Ocean is a wonderful picture book to share with little ones. In this intergenerational story, Abuela takes her granddaughter down to the Hudson River as a way to remember and revisit the ocean of her homeland, Puerto Rico.” -EA
(via Good Morning America; photo by Denzel Golatt)
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