The Poet X

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo

Genre: Young adult fiction

Publication Date: 2018

Introduction

The Poet X is a young adult novel by Elizabeth Acevedo, written entirely in verse. Its young narrator, Xiomara, uses the power of poetry to explore her own coming-of-age. The story juxtaposes her mother’s religious faith with Xiomara’s own religious doubt. It also contrasts her simultaneous feeling of invisibility versus unwanted attention and the force of physical expression versus the power of the pen. Xiomara wrestles between the expectations of her Dominican community, particularly her mother’s, and her own dreams as she begins to learn that writing and performing offer her the freedom for which she has been desperate. She finds that poetry provides not only an escape but a path forward.