Published in 2018, The Poet X is a young adult realistic fiction novel by Dominican-American poet and author Elizabeth Acevedo. The novel—specifically the protagonist Xiomara, who goes by "X"—draws on Acevedo's own experience growing up in New York City as the child of Dominican immigrants. Like the protagonist, Acevedo was raised Catholic (although she no longer practices the religion), so the book also underscores the tension Acevedo witnessed between her Catholic upbringing and her budding sexuality. Acevedo described the origins of the novel to PBS: "I was an eighth grade English teacher in Prince George's. I had about 150 young people in my space. And I realized that I had grown up loving poetry, loving performance poetry, and that they didn't have a reference point for that. Here's this thing I love that I think is really cool. Can I figure out a way to package this for young people? And that was the initial impetus."
The Poet X also draws heavily on Acevedo's love for slam poetry, a form of performance poetry that brings together poet-performers of different ages and backgrounds to share their work, which usually relates to social justice or other socio-political contemporary issues. Acevedo took part in her first "poetry slam" at age fourteen at New York City's Nuyorican Poets Café; X is fifteen and wants to get involved with slam poetry but fears her family's response.
The Poet X was released to critical acclaim and won several prestigious awards, including the Michael L. Printz Award, the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and the Pura Belpré Award. It was also a New York Times bestseller.
