Into a kind of lore
with Elizabeth Acevedo author of ‘Family Lore: A Novel’
#NuevasPáginas is a space that aims to amplify and spotlight Hispanic/Latine/x authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to their next favorite Hispanic/Latine/x authored book through a mini casual get-to-know-the-book-and-author interview. So please help me connect to more readers. So that together we can continue to build the love/support of Latine literature!
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Lupita Reads is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Hey Book Franz!
I am so excited to land in your inbox today with this very special guest. Her book debut book ‘The Poet X’ is the first time I read a young adult novel in which my young self and my adult self both simultaneously felt — cared for, seen, and validated. I loved the book so much that I introduced it to my God daughter who I thought, at the time, was perhaps a little too young for the novel in verse and its themes. But when I handed it to her, I let her know I would be available for any questions she had or anything she wanted to talk about that she read. She devoured the book and immediately fell in love with Elizabeth Acevedo too. We both got to attend an event in person and meet Elizabeth together - it’s one of my favorite memories that I return to when I think about how books connect us and save us. So this issue feels very special to me 🥹
And if you are wondering what I am currently reading - Family Lore (of course) 😍
Before we get into it today’s interview, I wanted to send you all a little reminder to meet me at la Biblioteca this Saturday, August 5th at 3 PM at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library for #LaComunidadReads very first event!!!
We’ll be welcoming Alejandra Oliva and speaking with her about her stunning debut book - ‘Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith and Migration’ and you can sign up/learn more about two other events HERE. Loyalty Books will be selling copies of her book at the event.
If you aren’t able to join us in person, you can join us virtually via the library’s youtube channel and you can also purchase a copy for Loyalty Books because they ship just about anywhere! :)
See you very soon at the library!
-Lupita
Without further ado, our special guest author for today’s Nuevas Pagina issue is……Elizabeth Acevedo author of ‘Family Lore’!
The photo above of Elizabeth Acevedo holding a copy of her novel ‘Family Lore’ was taken at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library where she writes with fellow local author Clint Smith!
Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book
RED AT THE BONE by Jacqueline Woodson, AFTERLIFE by Julia Alvarez, and THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES by Deesha Philyaw were all big inspirations behind FAMILY LORE. These stories center women, the multiplicity of womanhood, the exploration of family ties, and family storytelling.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
I connect with the desire to tell the stories of the women around me, to honor and elevate their heroic feats and heartbreak into a kind of lore. And I think Ona's fertility journey echoes my own--the idea that you could want to be childless until you actually face the fact you might be and how discordant one's desires around parenthood can be and become.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
I would live inside of one of Lucille Clifton's collections. Either GOOD WOMAN, or BLESSING OF THE BOATS. She's such a spare writer that I think this book home would be minimalist but full of light.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be?
Miles Davis meets Ibeyi. Miles Davis because he messes with time and pacing and is at times soothing and at times frenetic. The novel place with space and time the way he does in his music. Ibeyi because the novel is trying to chronicle people and ancestors in a way that feels like the twin's music.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
Ooooo a plate of mangú and fried cheese would not be remiss!
Where can readers keep up with your work?
Acevedowrites.com or @acevedowrites on Instagram
Thank you to Elizabeth Acevedo for taking the time to chat with me about her book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) #SupportLatinxLit!
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 is also the author of With the Fire on High--which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal--and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer's Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her loves.
Synopsis for Family Lore:
From the bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo comes her first novel for adults, the story of one Dominican-American family told through the voices of its women as they await a gathering that will forever change their lives.
Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake--a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she's led--her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else's? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.
But Flor isn't the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.
Spanning the three days prior to the wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo's inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces--one family's journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.
Elizabeth Acevedo is one of my faves!
Lupita, I love that you had that special experience bonding with your god-daughter over a book. Reading brings people together! Thanks for sharing that with us.