Andrea Beatriz Arango

Andrea Beatriz Arango was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she began teaching. She later spent a decade in the United States working in public schools and nonprofit organizations, experience that informs her focus on middle schoolers and their families.

Her debut, Iveliz Explains It All, took shape during the early COVID-19 school shutdown. Arango developed the manuscript over the following summer and pitched it through #DVpit, while later revisions competed with the demands of returning to classroom teaching.

Arango's novels use verse to address emotionally difficult experiences with candor and compassion. She credits spoken-word poetry with leading her toward the form, and describes a process built around completing a draft before revising, often in short timed sprints rather than through daily word-count goals.