Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian American writer, poet, educator, and dancer whose books center home. Their young-adult novels in verse include Every Body Looking, Break This House, and Salt the Water.
A Finalist for the National Book Award When Ada leaves home for her freshman year at a Historically Black College, it’s the first time she’s ever been so far from her family—and the first time that she’s been able to make her own choices and to seek her place in this new world. As she stumbles deeper into the world of dance and explores her sexuality, she also begins to wrestle with her past—her mother’s struggle with addiction, her Nigerian father’s attempts to make a home for her. Ultimately, Ada discovers she needs to brush off the destiny others have chosen for her and claim full ownership of her body and her future. “Candice Iloh’s beautifully crafted narrative about family, belonging, sexuality, and telling our deepest truths in order to be whole is at once immensely readable and ultimately healing.”—Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times Bestselling Author of Brown Girl Dreaming “An essential—and emotionally gripping and masterfully written and compulsively readable—addition to the coming-of-age canon.”—Nic Stone, New York Times Bestselling Author of Dear Martin “This is a story about the sometimes toxic and heavy expectations set onthe backs of first-generation children, the pressures woven into the familydynamic, culturally and socially. About childhood secrets with sharp teeth. And ultimately, about a liberation that taunts every young person.” —Jason Reynolds, New York Times Bestselling Author of Long Way Down
From Printz honoree and National Book Award Finalist Candice Iloh, a prose novel about a teenager reckoning with her family’s—and her home town's—secrets. Yaminah Okar left Obsidian and the wreckage of her family years ago. She and her father have made lives for themselves in Brooklyn. She thinks she’s moved on to bigger and better things. She thinks she's finally left behind that city she would rather forget. But when a Facebook message about her estranged mother pierces Yaminah’s new bubble, memories of everything that happened before her parents' divorce come roaring back. Now, Yaminah must finally reckon with the truth about her mother and the growing collapse of a place she once called home.
A Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book Cerulean Gene is free everywhere except school, where they’re known for repeatedly challenging authority. Raised in a free-spirited home by two loving parents who encourage Cerulean to be their full self, they’ve got big dreams of moving cross-country to live off the grid with their friends after graduation. But a fight with a teacher spirals out of control, and Cerulean impulsively drops out to avoid the punishment they fear is coming. Why wait for graduation to leave an oppressive capitalist system and live their dreams? Cerulean is truly brilliant, but their sheltered upbringing hasn’t prepared them for the consequences of their choice — especially not when it’s compounded by a family emergency that puts a parent out of work. Suddenly the money they’d been stacking with their friends is a resource that the family needs to stay afloat. Salt the Water is a book about dreaming in a world that has other plans for your time, your youth, and your future. It asks, what does it look like when a bunch of queer Black kids are allowed to dream? And what does it look like for them to confront the present circumstances of the people they love while still pursuing a wildly different future of their own?
Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian American writer, poet, educator, and dancer whose books center home. Their young-adult novels in verse include Every Body Looking, Break This House, and Salt the Water.
Connected canonical Works reviewed: Break This House; Every Body Looking; Salt the Water.
The retained bibliography connects this profile to Break This House, Every Body Looking, Salt the Water. These title relationships remain candidate editorial evidence and do not create or alter canonical Works.
The research records National Book Award for Young People's Literature — finalist — 2020 — Every Body Looking; Michael L. Printz Award — honor — 2021 — Every Body Looking. Each item remains tied to its retained source for editorial verification.
Coverage retained for the profile includes Candice Iloh: Episode title and framing identify Candice Iloh as a guest or interview subject.; Raw and honest storytelling with Candice Iloh ('Break This House'): Episode title and framing identify Candice Iloh as a guest or interview subject.; Ep. 157 Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh -- The Stacks Book Club (Nic Stone): Episode discusses a verified Work or author bibliography item; retained as coverage, not as proof of an author appearance.; New Fall Books: Candice Iloh: Episode title and framing identify Candice Iloh as a guest or interview subject..
