The presentation, hosted by Curious Iguana, will embody a query and reply session and a guide signing on Aug. 2 at Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ.

Acevedo was on the Frederick bookstore in 2018 to launch “The Poet X,” which received the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature amongst a number of different awards. She additionally wrote “With the Fire on High” and “Clap When You Land,” along with being a National Poetry Slam Champion.

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

“Family Lore” is about 5 girls, ages 30 by way of 70, who’re a part of the identical Dominican-American household. With a touch of magical realism, every of the ladies has her personal quirk, and one of many characters is ready to see when individuals will die.

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

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

The guide spans the three days main as much as the wake, together with a number of flashbacks. The main setting is New York City, however the flashbacks are set in Santo Domingo.

When it involves the inspiration for the guide, Acevedo mentioned she had a number of, together with a lady’s possession of her personal physique, a person and household’s relationship to recollections, and what makes an excellent life and what makes an excellent demise.

Acevedo mentioned she was additionally enthusiastic about a few of the elders in her personal life “and the relationships women have within a tight-knit family.”

There was a considerably autobiographical side to the story in that one character struggles with uterine fibroids, which Acevedo has skilled herself. Having had them, she discovered they have been surprisingly frequent, significantly amongst girls of coloration, however hardly ever spoken about.

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

The novel incorporates some surprises in how the ladies’s tales begin to interweave. Acevedo mentioned she loved how the youthful girls all appear to have completely different recollections of their grandmother, which contradict themselves. Some of this shocked Acevedo herself, as she was initially planning to put in writing the guide extra as a group of brief tales.

One problem, she mentioned, was developing with a satisfying ending for a guide that spends a number of time up to now.

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

While her younger grownup novels at all times contained heavier material, Acevedo mentioned “Family Lore” explores the topic of cruelty in a manner that she wouldn’t with a youthful viewers. When writing for adults, there’s much less of a sense that you have to information them right through, she mentioned. “I’m less the conductor. You’ve just got to get on the train.”

Acevedo wrote the vast majority of the guide in the course of the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020. She mentioned it was fascinating to spend a lot time enthusiastic about setting whereas below lockdown circumstances. She additionally spent a number of time speaking to her personal mother — who had 9 sisters and 6 brothers — about household and roles locally.

“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 each a freelancer and workers author. She lives within the Ballenger Creek space together with her husband, son and twin daughters.