The author’s first YA entry in six years is inspired by her time leading poetry workshops for girls at a juvenile detention center
Credit: 2026 by Elizabeth Acevedo. Courtesy of HarperCollins Children’s Books; Denzel Golatt
NEED TO KNOW
- Elizabeth Acevedo’s new YA novel, her first in six years, is inspired by her time teaching creative writing in a juvenile detention facility
- Anger Is Only a Shadow, told in poetry and prose, also details the struggle of loving someone with mental illness
- PEOPLE can exclusively share a first look at Anger Is Only a Shadow
Elizabeth Acevedo has returned to the young adult genre with her most personal story yet.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X — the 2018 YA novel that received several accolades, including the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature — is back with Anger Is Only a Shadow, and PEOPLE can unveil an exclusive first look.
Acevedo’s first YA entry in six years, Anger Is Only a Shadow is billed as the author’s “most personal novel yet.” It is inspired by a period over a decade ago when she worked as a creative writing instructor at a Washington, D.C. juvenile detention center, leading poetry workshops for the girls awaiting adjudication there.
Told in both poetry and prose, the book is set at a similar locale and is inspired by Acevedo’s experience at the center. It additionally deals with the experience of caring for a loved one with schizophrenia.
Credit: Denzel Golatt
“When a family member first starts demonstrating symptoms of mental illness, it can be so confusing and lonely for them and for their loved ones,” the award-winning author tells PEOPLE of her forthcoming YA novel.
“I hope Anger Is Only a Shadow will give insight into those early days,” she adds.
According to an official description, Anger Is Only a Shadow follows the story of “Lil, a big-hearted Afro-Dominican and Indigenous-Salvadoran girl on a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.”
“With a hopeful heart and a proclivity for freedom, Lil navigates the criminal justice system, a budding romance complicated by her ankle monitor and a growing concern for her brother who starts showing early signs of schizophrenia, posing one of the book’s central questions: how do we support loved ones who have illnesses that are not easily treated?”
Teasing the YA novel — and what Lil will encounter in its pages — herself on Instagram, Acevedo writes, “When Lil’s instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling.”
“The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the 100 miles where he’s away at college,” she writes. “Something’s been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.”
“As her court hearing ticks closer,” the author continues, “a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?”
Read an exclusive excerpt from Anger Is Only a Shadow below.
Credit: 2026 by Elizabeth Acevedo. Courtesy of HarperCollins Children’s Books
When the new YDR on morning duty, Dorn, tells us to hit our door for roll, I try not to flinch as every syllable of my government name avalanches from her lips:
Liliana Teicuh Pantaleon-Ortiz.
A rock pile of syllables that makes one of the other girls suck her teeth. I don’t know why my name annoys her, but here, any little thing annoys someone. I gotta set this straight from jump.
“Lil.” I raise my voice. Direct the words to Dorn, but direct my eyes to the teeth-sucking girl. She needs to know I’m not to f— with. “I go by Lil.”
Dorn pauses her pen at my interruption. Each YDR is different. You have one or two that seem to really enjoy giving us commands and telling us to hit our doors as if they’ve been waiting their whole lives for the power to make someone 10 years younger than them live in isolation for an afternoon. You have some who look bored out they minds. A job is a job is a job, their glazed eyes announce.
Dorn looks up from the roll sheet. “‘Little’ what?”
People always want my name to describe something other than me. I don’t look around to see what girls are still ear-hustling an exchange that has now gone on too long. I focus on Dorn. How she plays my request will determine whether or not the other girls try to play me.
“Just Lil.”
Dorn nods. I see her make a note by my name. The tension lands on the next new girl. Attention here is a game of hot potato: you never want to get caught with it on you.
I Am From
a name too petal pretty.
Ma wanted to call me Lili, music that glides off the back of your teeth.
Papi wanted to say the whole thing, Liliana. But I don’t have the patience to be gripped by all those syllables.
Aldwin dubbed me Lil.
And being from DC, with a skyline shorter than our tallest monument,
it’s easier to go by a small name
that doesn’t make you a target.
Copyright © 2026 by Elizabeth Acevedo. Courtesy of HarperCollins Children’s Books.
Anger Is Only a Shadow is out Sept. 15, and available for preorder now wherever books are sold.
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