Author Spotlight: Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta
Buy: Wild by Grisel Y. Acosta | FlowerSong Press | July 28, 2026 | ISBN: 9781963245950 | Page Count: 122
What are some key themes present in your book?
My book, Wild, explores the idea of wildness in three spheres: gender, environment, and mental health. Specifically, I wanted to look at how we attempt to “tame” women and queer folk, and what happens when we refuse such taming; how we attempt to control our environment and ab/use it in unhealthy ways and what happens if we have a more natural relationship with it; and how we attempt to classify mental health and what happens when we have a more holistic idea about mental health. These three areas clearly overlap, such how the pharmaceutical industry affects/treats women. Additionally, all my books explore the concept of outsiders.
How did your relationship with your family influence your writing?
I grew up in a family that was both loving and sexist, which might seem like an impossibility, but it isn’t. My parents really did love me and supported many of my goals, but they could not escape certain things they were taught. As a result, I often felt like my natural tendencies were seen as “wild” or ungodly. As I grew older and learned more, I realized this reality was much larger than my family. I explore my relationship with my mother a lot in this book, but also my relationship with my chosen sisters and the larger family of women throughout the world.
Did another art form influence this work? Painting, music, dancing, etc.
Yes, there are several ekphrastic poems in the book, specifically one poem in response to Remedios Varo’s “Mujer Saljendo del Psicoanalista” and another poem in response to the photography by Mel Efrus, which was part of a workshop planned by Tamar Jacobs. As a young person, I worked a lot in visual art, so writing in response to visual art seemed so right and I’m surprised I hadn’t done this much before, choosing instead to write in response to music in my previous book. The Varo work contributed to my exploration of mental health, and the Efrus work helped me explore mental health and its relationship to the outdoors.
You can often tell a lot about a book by how it begins and how it ends. What is the first line and last line of your book?
The first line of my book (which is connected to the title of the first poem) reads “is the book my mother wanted” and the last line of my book is “a pen in your hand”. These lines make sense together in that I start with a poem that explores the book my mother wanted to write but never did, and I end with a poem that explores being (literally) a starving artist in New York City. In many ways, women’s “wildness” is due to not having agency and being the most oppressed population on the planet. My mom was educated and a working woman, but I do believe there were things that she was unable to manifest in her life because she was taught to always defer to a man. I try to address that a little bit in this book, so in some ways, the first and last line imply that she passed the pen to me.
How did you get into writing? Can you pinpoint a memory where it all began for you?
I was blessed to have books in my home, and I also saw books in my father’s office. Both of my parents read all the time in both English and Spanish. I mimicked my environment—this didn’t happen with my brothers, by the way. I made books before I could write full words as a child. I got as many pages as my tiny hands could hold and stapled them together and made, for example, “The Book of Ws” or “The Book of Js.” And I’d just fill the pages with letters. However, once I started reading, I started writing in earnest. My first works were plays and puppet shows, which I performed for my parents. The earliest one I can remember was a puppet show about the importance of brushing one’s teeth. If that isn’t the most Virgo thing ever….
If you could have a dinner party with anyone living or dead, who would it be and why? What would you serve for dinner?
I adore cooking for my friends and having parties regularly, although I wouldn’t necessarily classify them as “dinner parties,” as I invite more people than can sit around the table, my partner DJs, and there is dancing involved. It’s more like a typical Latine party where people are eating at different times and coming in and out of the home all afternoon or evening. That said, I’d love it if these folks could attend one of my gatherings: Gregg Araki, queer filmmaker who I’ve adored since 2000; Julio Torres, actor/filmmaker/playwright who I’d put in charge of visual whimsy; Janelle Monáe, whose album, The ArchAndroid, I discovered when I was doing my PhD in Texas in 2010, and it literally helped me survive; Celia Cruz, because ¡azucar!; and Audre Lorde, not only because of her work but just to see if she’d be down to dance like fool with the rest of us.
What are you currently reading?
I’ve been reading more than one book at a time, because they end up informing each other. Here is the stack I’ve been working on: Literature Class by Julio Cortázar, A Philosophy of Shame by Frédéric Gros, The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos (Did you know this was actually written like a satirical diary?), and Triage by Claudia Rankine.
Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta (she/they) is a professor at the City University of New York-BCC. Her book, Wild (FlowerSong Press) was just released. Their poetry collection, Things to Pack on the Way to Everywhere (Get Fresh, 2021), was a 2020 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize finalist. She is the editor of Latina Outsiders (Routledge, 2019), listed by NBC Latino. Select work is in Poetry Magazine; Poem-A-Day; Acentos Review; and Hopkins Review. Key performances include the Smithsonian, the Poetry Foundation, Lincoln Center, and Joe’s Pub. Select fellowships include a 2025 New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Mid-Atlantic Arts grant and VONA Fellowship.
