Book Club Guide

The Poet X

by Elizabeth Acevedo · 2018 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Faith, body and voice — the things Xiomara has been told to keep quiet
Poetry as the form that can hold what prose cannot
A Dominican-American Harlem girlhood — church, mother, street, self

About this book

Xiomara Batista, a Dominican-American teenager in Harlem, channels her anger, faith and desire into a notebook of poems she's afraid to share — until a school slam poetry club gives her a place to perform. Acevedo's novel-in-verse won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Carnegie Medal and the Printz Award — a rare triple.

Published in 2018, The Poet X won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Carnegie Medal, the Pura Belpré Award and the Michael L. Printz Award. Acevedo is herself a slam poet and has performed internationally.

Discussion questions

The novel is written entirely in verse. How does this form shape Xiomara's voice — what can poetry express that prose narration might flatten?
Xiomara's relationship with her mother is rooted in religious devotion that Xiomara doesn't share. How does Acevedo develop this conflict — with sympathy for both, or with a clear position?
Xiomara's body — its size, the attention it draws — is a source of both power and danger throughout the novel. How does Acevedo develop this?
Slam poetry becomes Xiomara's outlet. How does Acevedo render the performance of poetry — and what does the communal, spoken aspect of slam add to a novel that is itself poetry?
The Poet X won the National Book Award, the Carnegie Medal and the Printz Award — a rare triple recognition across American and British awards. What does it do that earns this breadth of recognition?