Elisabet Velasquez Bio
Elisabet Velasquez is a Boricua writer, mother of two children from Brooklyn, New York, now living in Jersey City, New Jersey. Velasquez uses poetry to share her own transformative narrative, illustrating how life’s diverse experiences—especially her experiences, growing up in Bushwick, Brooklyn as a first generation Puerto-Rican teen mother and GED recipient have been instrumental in shaping her unique insights and approach to learning and writing. Her compelling story challenges traditional notions of success and emphasizes the profound value embedded in life’s journey. Her career began in 2009 at The Nuyorican Poets Cafe where she began sharing poems about her life and went on to join the 2009 Nuyorican Slam Team.
In 2021 after 12 years of sharing her poems publicly she debuted her young adult novel in verse, When We Make It – an auto-fiction which gained wide recognition including: Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2021 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2021, YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Indies Introduce and Next List selection, Kirkus Reviews Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books, Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction, Américas Award Commended Title, ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project selection, In the Margins Book Award Top Ten selection, NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books, The News & Observer Best Books for Kids, Gotham Book Prize finalist and was a 2021 Goodreads Readers Choice Nominee. The New York Times named it a Young Adult Book to Watch For.
HONORS, AWARDS & RECOGNITION
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YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
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Indies Introduce and Next List selection
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Kirkus Reviews Best Books
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School Library Journal Best Books
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Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction
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Américas Award Commended Title
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ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project selection
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In the Margins Book Award Top Ten selection
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NCSS-CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books
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The News & Observer Best Books for Kids
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Gotham Book Prize finalist
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2021 Goodreads Readers Choice Nominee
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2021 Young Adult Book To Watch For, The New York Times
Projects
MoMa
I immediately felt very connected to this idea of having two hearts,” says Elisabet Velasquez, a Boricua writer from Brooklyn and author of When We Make It. Puerto Rican artist Papo Colo’s screenprint Every American Has Two Hearts connected deeply with Velasquez: “Both hearts contend with what it means to be a successful American in the United States while maintaining your own cultural identity, which, because of the history of colonization, can be at odds with your American identity.”
Velasquez continues, “I am constantly thinking about how I got here, wherever ‘here’ is at the moment. At this moment I’m being invited to be a part of this series. I sit down to write my poems with this question in mind: What does it mean for me to be an artist at this moment? This is the poem that arrived as the answer to that question.”
Academy Of American Poets
About this Poem
I learned Spanish as a young adult and everyone would always tell me that I spoke it wrong. The problem was that I was told I spoke English wrong too. I believe part of why I became a poet was because it was impossible to speak wrong in a poem. A poem wasn't going to grade my grammar or deny me a job because of my accent. This poem reminds me that I am enough in any language.”
—Elisabet Velasquez