“It has been a dream since I was little to have a book,” said Ana Heloisa Carvalho, a senior double major in education and English, who published her first novel, Elarion, on Aug. 31.
Born in Mato Grosso, Brazil, Carvalho moved to the United States when she was four years old and has lived in New Jersey since. When she and her family moved to the states, Carvalho explained not knowing anything here. “I remember coming here [The United States] and going to the store when we were first getting situated, and I would be like ‘What are they saying…and I was like wow they speak English so fast, like I couldn’t even catch up.’”
Considering Carvalho’s first language was Portuguese, it was not only a shift in public settings but in school as well. She began school at Lenna Conrow Elementary school in West Long Branch, and recalled how scared she was the first day starting at a school where they didn’t speak her language.
“Luckily, my pre-school teacher was Peruvian and it was perfect that she spoke Spanish because it was not quite Portuguese, but it was there enough where I got a word or two per sentence,” Carvalho said.
She taught Carvalho everything she needed to know, to where she never had to take an ESL class. “Without her, I don’t think I would have done so well in English later because you would think since I came from another country. I’ve been in honors English my whole life, that doesn’t quite make sense but it’s because of her…and now here we are with a book.”
After majoring in nursing for her first semester of her freshman year at Brookdale Community College she quickly switched to an education major before transferring to Monmouth and pursuing a double major in both English and education. Carvalho’s brother helped her to recognize her true love for education after telling his sister how he saw the love she had for helping others, especially children. Her brother reminded her of the times when she was little that she would set up her dolls, make fake homework for them, and then grade it. “Without him I don’t know if I would have accepted it, truly,” she said.
Carvalho wrote for The Outlook starting her junior year but her love for writing began almost a decade prior. As young as 12 years old, Carvalho would use her mom’s Dell to write stories and print them out as if it was a book of her own. Carvalho has contributed to the lifestyles, entertainment, and features section of The Outlook. While she had already begun her writing journey prior to becoming a contributing writer at The Outlook, she explained writing for the student-run newspaper as a “different experience” having her name published on something. It took away any fear she had by writing for the newspaper first before publishing something on her own.
From the very beginning of the writing process, “It’s just been really me,” she explained, even down to the editing. Her hometown friends were the first to know about the idea and encouraged her to go through with the publishing of her own book after years of ideas. Carvalho began the process in the spring of ‘25 with a google doc and a character chart. Her goal was to finish the book by the time the ‘25/’26 school year started. She explained the purpose of the google doc and character chart was to help her vision the entirety of the book, up until the end.
Carvalho emphasized the importance of character development when writing the book, from character traits, to romantic and platonic relationships. She even took the time to purposely name each character with a specific meaning. The author honed in on one character specifically, Adeline, who she created for young girls to look up to. “She’s smart, she’ll give the ideas, she’s strong but also if she needs help, she’ll ask,” Carvalho said as she explained the character of Adeline. “I got tired of trying to look for characters in books that looked like me, talked like me, and I couldn’t find her so I just made a bunch of different versions,” she added.
Ace, her nickname given to her by her friends at Monmouth is the name that she used to publish her book. The nickname came from her desire of always wanting to do well in school. Carvalho joked that her friends always ask her, “Did you ace it?” A big part of who she is is school, therefore using her nickname seemed fitting to her.
During the summer, the author balanced a job while also setting a disciplined schedule to stay on track with her goal. She spent the summer writing at least a chapter a week, sometimes staying up until 3 a.m just to get a few last words in, and stopping after every ten chapters to edit before starting the writing process of the next.
Once published, Carvalho shared the excitement and joy she had when the first copy was finally in her hands. As a reader herself, her room is filled with books. She shared the moment that she scanned her room of all the books on her shelves and looking back at her very own in her hands thought to herself, “What if this is on someone’s shelf one day just like my books are.”
Carvalho dedicated her book to her brother who helped her recognize and accept her love for education and English. She hopes to become a high school English teacher while writing books on the side, and not only teaching how to read and write but being an example herself.
