7 days of nominations!

7 days of voting!

And now we have a winner for our July book of the Month.

The Mocha Girl Read Book of the Month for July is The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.

Take a minute to see what this book is all about.

Synopsis

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

About the Author

ELIZABETH ACEVEDO is the New York Times best selling author of the award-winning novel, THE POET X. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. She has graced stages nationally and internationally including renowned venues such as The Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, South Africa’s State Theatre, The Bozar in Brussels, and the National Library of Kosovo.

Acevedo is a National Slam Champion and her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Poetry, Puerto Del Sol, Callaloo,  The Notre Dame Review, and others. Acevedo is a Cave Canem Fellow, Cantomundo Fellow, and participant of the Callaloo Writer’s Workshop.

She resides in Washington, D.C. with her partner. (read more)

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