Aaron H. Aceves '20 Signs for Debut Novel Through Simon & Schuster

By
Audrey Deng
August 18, 2020
Aaron Aceves

This Is Why They Hate Us by recent alumnus Aaron H. Aceves ‘20 was acquired by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for spring 2022 publication. This is Aceves’s debut novel.

Publishers Weekly Rights Report from April this year announced that Jennifer Ung at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers had acquired Aceves's YA debut. According to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, “[t]he novel follows Enrique, a Latino teen from East LA, who is determined to get over his crush on his best friend by summer's end and winds up discovering heartfelt truths about friendship, family, and himself.”

Aceves read select pieces of his writing in the thirteenth and final installment of the Writing Program’s online reading series, Herd Music, on Tuesday, August 18, joining alumni Nicollette Barsamian ’15Corey Spencer ’16 and Nicholas Goodly ’17 (author of Black Swim), as well as from alumna and former adjunct assistant professor in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Program Camille Rankine ’09 (author of Incorrect Merciful Impulses).

Aceves is a Mexican-American writer born and raised in East LA. He graduated from Harvard College in 2015, where he received the Le Baron Russell Briggs Award after being nominated by Jamaica Kincaid. His work has appeared in Germ MagazineRaspa Magazine, New Pop Lit, and inQluded, where he serves as the Culture Editor. He currently lives in New York.