Elizabeth Acevedo
  • About
  • Books
    • Anger Is Only a Shadow
    • Family Lore
    • Clap When You Land
    • With the Fire on High
    • The Poet X
    • Inheritance
    • Write Yourself a Lantern
  • News
  • Events
  • Contact
Select Page

Elizabeth Acevedo – Winner of the 2026 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature!

by Liz | Oct 7, 2026 | Awards, Media, Updates

Elizabeth Acevedo was just named winner of the 2026 Kirkus Prize  for Young Readers’ Literature. Watch the youtube live event here!

SUBSCRIBE TO ELIZABETH’S NEWSLETTER

Follow Elizabeth on Instagram

acevedowrites

Writing-ass writer. ✨
So many narrative threads had to come together for So many narrative threads had to come together for ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW to arrive at its final form and I’m so thankful to the many people who read the early pages of this novel and saw all the traditions I was drawing from and trying to honor. I never quite know if I’m going to pull a book off. If all my ambitions will cohere. But something about AIOAS felt guided. I knew when it was done, when I’d arrived at the project I was trying to create. Thank you to the jurors and the @kirkus_reviews editorial team for recognizing this work. And to the home team, you already know. You already know. I wrote my ass off, but you all pushed me beyond even that point. I’m so thankful. 💓
Still gobsmacked over this news. When I look back Still gobsmacked over this news. When I look back we the previous winners of this prize, and the authors I was nominated alongside, I have no words but to say I’m honored to be in their ranks. May we all write books that leave young people feeling known, held, and whole. Special shoutout to @hannsawyerr who championed my nomination. You a real one, Hannah! ✨
The champagne didn’t pop how I’d been anticipating The champagne didn’t pop how I’d been anticipating, but we are still celebrating all the things this book done did! Let’s go AIOAS! Seven starred reviews! Kirkus Prize Nominee! Instant NYT Bestseller! So many people at so many tour stops loving our Lil!
Our girl Lil made the list! Thank you to everyone Our girl Lil made the list! Thank you to everyone who bought a book, borrowed a book, shared a book. I don’t take for granted how difficult it is in this moment for a contemporary novel about a little hood morenita to become a bestseller. I’m so appreciative to my team at HarperCollins and to my unofficial street team, you all!#AngerIsOnlyAShadow
Pausing tour updates to say MY MAN MY MAN MY MAN. Pausing tour updates to say MY MAN MY MAN MY MAN. 17 pictures on the 17 year anniversary of dating this man. My lover, my baby daddy, my thought partner, the co-designer of my hearth and home: shoutout to us for wildly tumbling into this life together. LoveLivesHere
Twin Cities, what a treat! Thank you for the Minne Twin Cities, what a treat! Thank you for the Minnesotan hospitality. I’m so thankful we got to talk about hybrid forms, Afro-latinidad, and writing for yourself vs. writing for an audience. St. Louis, your girl has boarded her flight and I’m on my way to see you! 💜
Indy and Chicago, y’all set the bar high! I’m so g Indy and Chicago, y’all set the bar high! I’m so glad we got to talk about community and loneliness and craft and conjuring more care-full futures. So excited for the rest of my Mid-West stops.
Boston! How did you know I’ve always dreamed of do Boston! How did you know I’ve always dreamed of doing a spirit tunnel?! (Can I admit something, IG? Posting this much is so hard for me. I’m so self-critical. I’ll think: I look doofy/ I don’t like that angle/ is that what I look like from the back?/ no one wants to see this everyday/ etc. Being perceived is hard. But I’m challenging myself to then reply: so what. How you look in a post isn’t even top ten most interesting thing about you and anyways, you look human. You look like a regular-ass human who is grateful her job and her calling are one and the same and the internet is a shitgarbagefire on a daily basis and the pursuit of perfection made you small for years and anyone who doesn’t want to see your corner of the webs can block you but fuck it if you’re going to have an account you should use it, and use it to show the joy of connecting with people at the same rate some people use it to to fortify capitalism and influence consumption even if it isn’t the most favorable lighting or whatever dumb intrusive thought 🙄.) Chicago! I’m so excited to see you tonight. #AIOAS
Hardly home, but always repping. The energy in the Hardly home, but always repping. The energy in the room! #AIOAS
Thank you to everyone who wished this book a Happy Thank you to everyone who wished this book a Happy Pub Day! I felt super loved and I’m so grateful I got to spend the day with teenagers in Baltimore and with a full house at Goucher College. New York City, I can’t wait til our event tomorrow night!
DC! What a launch! I wouldn’t have had it any othe DC! What a launch! I wouldn’t have had it any other way 💜
Our matriarch turned 100 years old! Our matriarch turned 100 years old!
Especially for folks like me who don’t post enough Especially for folks like me who don’t post enough to be privileged by the algorithm when I do post it doesn’t always get to the people who follow me. Hopefully a newsletter will keep us connected on all the big things and be a more intimate forum to keep you up to date with what I’m thinking, publishing, and taking in (And if you signed up for my newsletter back in 2019…it’s been a long time coming and you a real one!) Link in my bio
August was luscious. Femme art fairs and aquariums August was luscious. Femme art fairs and aquariums. Mario Kart and library visits. Supermarket selfies and plaits. Food and shoptalk with lifelong mentors and new homies. More art. More air. A rainbow that stopped a street of people in their tracks. Fifth starred review for AIOAS and the UK copy. Last summer I had the newborn strapped to me and a body too freshly opened and tender to adventure. And I’m glad I took it slow and close to home. This summer we was outside. 💙
ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW is being welcomed into the ANGER IS ONLY A SHADOW is being welcomed into the world with such light. @kirkus_reviews reviews 10,000 books a year. Of those, approximately 500 or so receive a starred review. Of those, six are honored as finalist for the Kirkus Prize. The odds are staggering to me, and I’m so honored the editors and judges were so moved by Lil’s story. Also, want to note that the audiobook was award a coveted Earphone’s award for the narration. Kirkus is loving the kid. Excited to put on my dancing shoes in October ✨
Lately. Soggy collars. Delicious tacos. Baking thr Lately. Soggy collars. Delicious tacos. Baking three layered birthday cakes and toasting to twenty years of friendship. Beloved. Attempts at stay-at-home writing retreats. The words that guide me. Aces and Love. These babies and the art I learn for them and their lessons on the art of living.
This man loves me down! Seventeen years in the gam This man loves me down! Seventeen years in the game and we still out on dates that last the whole day 🫶🏽
Every time I am preparing to leave home my oldest Every time I am preparing to leave home my oldest asks: “but why do you have to leave, momma?” And it simultaneously fills me up (because, wow, this funny and sweet little human loves me 🥹) and breaks my heart (because I don’t want to leave him ever! And also, I gotta go, babe). Prepping this tour — which my editor rightly called “robust” — has been intentional at every level. Thinking about regions I haven’t been to in over a decade, cities that show me love but haven’t had tour stops before, partnering with organizations doing important ground work, working with bookstores who love my novels AND my community of readers, and bashfully asking my favorite writers if they’ll join me on stage. Love was built into every stop on this schedule. And I’ve also been preparing my heart and my family: I leave because being in the world, talking about stories, meeting readers, getting charged up at events: this kind of connection bolsters me. Moves me to write. Is an unrivaled exchange of seeing and being seen. It reminds me that art is communion and as necessary as bread. Especially given the way we are urged at every turn to become insular, consumptious, robotic, every time we gather to talk about art, and thusly, about what makes us human, we are partaking is something primal and radical. Ah! Forgive me for making it that deep…but also, I really do think it’s that deep! Or else I wouldn’t be getting on all the planes! Hope to see many, many, many of you out in these streets! Ticket info for each event in the bio. 💜🩵💙
Piano concertos and homemade birthday cakes. Braid Piano concertos and homemade birthday cakes. Braids and signed books and selfies and marketing. Children’s museum and @dominicanwriters retreats. Drinks with my beloved. Drinks with my bestie. Red nails and polka dots. Midsummer ripened sweet-sweet.
Beyond honored to be a finalist for this prize, an Beyond honored to be a finalist for this prize, and alongside so many incredible writers. Thank you to the juror who nominated me and allowed me to be in such esteemed company. Also, Laurie Halse Anderson is now, and will forever be, a hero of mine. Did you all ever read SPEAK? Tell me all the ways it changed your life. 🫶🏽
Follow on Instagram
© Elizabeth Acevedo. Designed by IceyDesigns