Elizabeth Acevedo explores female familial relationships in ‘Family Lore’

By LAURA DUKES Special to The News-Post

It’s not Elizabeth Acevedo’s first time in Frederick, but this will be her first time discussing an adult novel here.

“It’s spicier,” the New York Times bestselling author said of her new book, “Family Lore,” which will be released by Ecco Books on Aug. 1. “There’s a little bit more sex.”

The presentation, hosted by Curious Iguana, will include a question and answer session and a book signing on Aug. 2 at the Downtown Community Room at Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ.

Acevedo was at the Frederick bookstore in 2018 to launch “The Poet X,” which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature among several other awards. She also wrote “With the Fire on High” and “Clap When You Land,” in addition to being a National Poetry Slam Champion.

“I had a really great time,” Acevedo said. “There’s a way they [Curious Iguana] approach putting together different events that feels really smart and thoughtful.”

“Family Lore” is about five women, ages 30 through 70, who are part of the same Dominican-American family. With a hint of magical realism, each of the women has her own quirk, and one of the characters is able to see when people will die.

“She dreams when people are going to die, and then they do die,” Acevedo said.

This character, Flor, decides to plan her own living wake, which makes her sisters very confused about her motivations.

The book spans the three days leading up to the wake, along with several flashbacks. The primary setting is New York City, but the flashbacks are set in Santo Domingo.

When it comes to the inspiration for the book, Acevedo said she had several, including a woman’s ownership of her

Author Talk

When: 7 to 8 p.m. Aug. 2

Where: Downtown Community Room at Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ, 15 W. Church St. Frederick. Tickets: Free, but must be reserved, $30 for a ticket plus a copy of “Family Lore” Info: curiousiguana.com do herself, as she was initially planning to write the book more as a collection of short stories.

One challenge, she said, was coming up with a satisfying ending for a book that spends a lot of time in the past.

“A lot of questions I didn’t imagine I’d be engaging with came up,” she said.

While her young adult novels always contained heavier subject matter, Acevedo said “Family Lore” explores the subject of cruelty in a way that she wouldn’t with a younger audience. When writing for adults, there’s less of a feeling that you need to guide them all the way through, she said. “I’m less the conductor. You’ve just got to get on the train.” own body, an individual and family’s relationship to memories, and what makes a good life and what makes a good death.

Acevedo said she was also thinking about some of the elders in her own life “and the relationships women have within a tight-knit family.”

There was a somewhat autobiographical aspect to the story in that one character struggles with uterine fibroids, which Acevedo has experienced herself. Having had them, she learned they were surprisingly common, particularly among women of color, but rarely spoken about.

“Until someone brings it up, you kind of feel like you are suffering by yourself,” she said.

The novel contains some surprises in how the women’s stories start to interweave.

Acevedo said she enjoyed how the younger women all seem to have different recollections of their grandmother, which contradict themselves. Some of this surprised Aceve-

Acevedo wrote the majority of the book during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. She said it was interesting to spend so much time thinking about setting while under lockdown conditions. She also spent a lot of time talking to her own mom — who had nine sisters and six brothers — about family and roles in the community.

“There’s so much story in just getting to know the people I love.”

Laura Dukes has written for The Frederick News-Post since 2013 as both a freelancer and staff writer. She lives in the Ballenger Creek area with her husband, son and twin daughters.