Delali Adjoa is the author of The Free Verse Society, a Winter/Spring 2026 Indies Introduce selection. .png)
Fisher Nash of Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky, served on the panel that selected Campbell's book for Indies Introduce.
“The Free Verse Society gave me everything I want in a YA book and a romance: flawed characters trying to figure out who they are, real stakes, and a slow burn, sweet romance. Jae moves in with her uncle and starts attending a new school to make a fresh start after giving up her baby for adoption. Derek is still struggling with his family's fall from wealth after his father's death. The way these two characters struggle, make mistakes, write poetry, and find each other is beautiful and heart-rending,” said Nash.
Adjoa sat down with Nash to discuss her debut title. This is a transcript of their discussion. You can listen to the interview on the ABA podcast, BookED.
Fisher Nash: Hi. My name is Fisher Nash at Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky, and I'm here with Delali Adjoa, who was born in Togo to Ghanaian parents, but grew up in Canada, where she traded sunny cottons for wool tuques and snow suits. She has been chasing warmer weather ever since.
Delali writes fiction centered on identity, freedom, and family, and loves the American South for the stories it has buried. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and Georgetown University.
I loved The Free Verse Society from the very beginning. When Jae is starting a new school, she's got some baggage that she's bringing in from her past. She's feeling isolated, and she runs into the wrong bathroom to hide. It's a great opening. It pulls you right in, and portrays the intensity of high school emotions so authentically.
The thing that made this book standout for me — made me want it for Indies Introduce — was the real life struggles you portray in the book. I hear often from teens or parents that they're looking for those real-life things, and you have adoption, grief and loss, a parent's addiction, a friendship, the loss of friendship. These are all real stakes in your novel, but you don't sensationalize them. You have a real sense of grace and care for your characters, which is why I wanted it for Indies Introduce.
I reread this novel in preparation for our conversation, and I was struck all over again by the intensity of your character's emotions. Your book reminds me of some of my favorite young adult novels from my teenage years — the ones that didn't shy away from big topics. You're just not afraid to tackle big stuff. What made you decide to take on such big themes while you were writing The Free Verse Society?
Delali Adjoa: First of all, thank you so much for choosing this novel. It feels so good to have booksellers like you appreciate the story, that means so much to me.
I tackle these big topics for teens, because I know that teens can be very quiet about the world they're experiencing, even though inside them it is very loud and chaotic and tumultuous. Even for myself, growing up in a family that was loving and supportive, I just didn't feel comfortable talking big feelings. You mentioned reading in your teen years, but I don't remember a lot of reading for pleasure in my teen years. I remember assigned reading. But I definitely had books that made an impact on me like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. When I read that book, I was stunned that a grown up would be so honest about my experience.
I can't imagine a teenager who doesn’t have that support, and on top of that is not seeing their lives honestly portrayed in literature. When we were trying to get this book published, we got a lot of rejections saying the book was too dark for post-pandemic years. It was so surprising to me. They were very complimentary about the manuscript, but they felt this is not the time for this book.
I gave up, and I set it aside for a while, until I started recalling what happened during the pandemic. I remembered that there were kids, there were teens, at home in situations that they didn't want to be in or that they shouldn't have been in. And I thought, “Where are the books for those teens?” So, I really wanted to get this book published, and so I pushed, we tried again, and Peachtree Teen picked it up.
I don't think our job as adults is to paint a more beautiful picture of the world. I think our job is to stand with them and try to perceive what they're perceiving, to look into whatever darkness they're looking into, and to help them find meaning in that. I hope that's what I'm doing with my books — I'm portraying an honest life, their experiences, so that they can find hope to keep going.
FN: I think that really comes through. I don't see this book as dark at all, even though you have very serious themes. There's also so much hope. There's found family, there's so much care that people are showing to each other.
In college, I actually had a writing professor tell me that if you have an agenda when you're writing, then your writing is not going to be good. My only agenda should be to write well. He was trying to keep me from politicizing anything. At the time, I felt in my bones that he was wrong, but I was young and I didn't have the wherewithal to openly disagree with him. Then at Winter Institute, Min Jin Lee, during a keynote conversation, said she's always got a bigger point. She has a thesis that she's writing towards. I really love that, and it stood in direct contrast to the lesson that my former teacher had tried to impart to me, that I had rejected internally.
What is your thesis statement for writing The Free Verse Society? What's your goal in telling this particular story?
DA: I'm going to take the long road to the thesis statement — it really begins with my story. After moving so much as a child, at 14 I moved from Canada to Louisville, Kentucky, and just felt displaced. The mannerisms were different. The accent was different. I didn't have the cultural references that everyone else had. I didn't have the same clothes. I remember standing in the cafeteria doorway, and everyone seemed to know where they belonged. Everybody had somebody.
I just felt so isolated and so alone, so I went to the bathroom, and I spent lunch period hiding in a bathroom stall. When I wrote this book, that's where I placed Jae in the beginning. After having moved from Atlanta to Delray for a fresh start, she feels alone and she is grieving all the people that have left her life. Her father left when she was young, her relationship with her mother is broken, and then the biggest heartbreak for her was placing her baby up for adoption, when that's not what she wanted to do. And just like I did, Jae finds her people. For her, it's in The Free Verse Society, the school poetry club, and in Derek as well.
Derek eventually gets there too. That really is what I want readers, especially young readers, to see: two characters who are feeling alone and isolated finding their people. So if there is a thesis statement, it would be that no matter how you're feeling right now, you have people. You may not have found them yet, but there are people for you, who want to love you and hold you through whatever it is you're going through. Just continue to have hope. It's a story of having hope. It is a romance. But for me, the deeper you know, perhaps the deeper love is in that found family. Jae and Derek come to love each other in a romantic way, but they become a family to each other and to the Free Verse members. Have hope you will find people who will love you and hold you through what you're going through.
FN: That really does come through, and it leads perfectly to my next question. One of the things I love about the book is the community you build around Jae and Derek. Both of them have people in their lives that have failed them and caused them pain, but there's so many other people who show them love, and care about them deeply.
One of my favorite characters, besides Jae and Derek, I think might be a little surprising but it’s Uncle Rowan. He's so strict, he's a recurrent source of pain and confusion for both Jae and Derek, but I don't think you ever write him as a villain, even when he's trying to keep Jae and Derek apart. You've instead got this complex character who's trying to do right by his niece, Jae, and not realizing how he might be contributing to her hurt.
There's lots of other fantastic characters in your novel besides your leads! Do you have a favorite side character or side story that you really loved writing?
DA: Yes, Uncle Rowan. That was a surprise to me too, but maybe it shouldn't have been, because in many ways, he is inspired by my father. There are a lot of differences, but at least one thing that’s similar is this push for excellence and education. There's a scene where Jae comes back from school and he asks her where she's been. When she tells him he she was at the poetry club, he's like, “We'll talk about it later.” That reminds me so much of my childhood, because my dad would say, “Reach for the moon, and if you fail, you'll land among the stars.”
It was always about pushing for the highest. Coming from an immigrant family, you want your kids to do better than you did. So as a young girl, I wanted to be a writer, but the question was always “What are you going to do with that?” In my high school yearbook, I wrote, “In 10 years, I'll be practicing medicine or writing novels.” It was these two paths. One was my parents’ but the other was mine. It was my hope for myself, and I eventually got there.
But I appreciate what my dad did. I appreciate what my parents did in pushing for me to always try my best. That kind of makes me feel old as well, because I remember that period of my life, but I'm starting to identify more and more with Uncle Rowan's ideas. At times I'm like, “You know, he's kind of right. Sorry, but he's right.” He's become a character that is very dear to me.
FN: I also had strict parents who had their own goals for me. I thought you dealt with him so well. I feel like it's very easy for a writer to make that kind of character a villain, but you don't do that. You don't take that way out, and I really like that.
One of the other memorable side characters was Mrs. Aldana, the teacher that buys Derek's former home and gives him the opportunity to join the poetry club (as opposed to being turned into the cops). What about some of your teachers? Good or bad.
DA: I remember my sixth grade teacher. During a parent-teacher conference, she was just raving about my writing. She said I was going to be a writer one day. But I found this little paragraph that I wrote at that time, and it was absolutely horrible, horrible writing. So, I don't know what she meant. I don't know what she saw in my writing at the time, but she was right. I did end up becoming a writer.
The counselor in the book, Mr. Corrigan, is actually named after my high school Spanish teacher, Mrs. Corrigan. Whenever she saw there was a spark of interest in someone for learning, she just pounced. She just wanted to foster that love. She took me to festivals and she made me president of the Spanish club, and was so encouraging.
She would have loved this book. She's not here anymore, but she would have loved this book. It was during [the pandemic] that she passed, so I almost got to share it with her. The name that I originally had for that counselor character was also a teacher that I had, and I realized I didn't want his name in the book, because he used to frustrate our class so much and he would never admit when he was wrong. So, I changed it from his name to Mrs. Corrigan’s.
FN: I love hearing that. We all have those teachers that are irritating. I've got some that definitely inspired me opposite of what they probably wanted.
You have already gained a devoted reader out of me and several bookseller panelists from Indies Introduce, and I hope you're going to gain many devoted readers now that the book is out in the world. I'm so excited. I put my shelf talker on it the other day.
What is next for you? Are you working on a new writing project?
DA: For the past three months, I had the hardest time even choosing a project. I have books in my head that have lived there for years and I'm also a very, very indecisive person. I had to consider what would be the book that's best to follow Free Verse.
I also have this love of history, and I was struggling with when I could start incorporating that genre. So the book that I'm working on right now is contemporary with a little sprinkle of history. And there will always be big, heavy topics in my books. And this one will also be hopeful. Hopefully it will start with a little bit of darkness and bring in the light. I really hope people love it, but I'm excited. I'm really excited for it.
FN: I'm excited to read it. I'm just really looking forward to seeing whatever you do next.
If you're looking for a real life, wonderfully written, beautiful romance, you should stock The Free Verse Society in your store. It's wonderful, and perfect for kids who are looking for something that has real stakes. Thank you so much for talking to me today, Delali!
DA: Thank you so much for everything — for the blurb, for the call, for just your support. You all are such a force. You're just so supportive of authors. And I'm eternally grateful. Thank you so much.
The Free Verse Society by Delali Adjoa (Peachtree Teen, 9781682638408/9781682638781, HC/PB, YA Fiction, $19.99/$14.99, On Sale: 03/10/26)
You can learn more about this author at delaliadjoa.com.
ABA member stores are invited to use this interview or any others in our series of Q&As with Indies Introduce debut authors in newsletters and social media and in online and in-store promotions. Please let us know if you do.