18 Feb 2021

Jason Reynolds

Black Authors post, Day 18.

Black Authors post, Day 18.

Today’s author is children’s and YA author Jason Reynolds.

Jason was born in Washington, DC in 1983. He was raised in nearby Oxon Hill, Maryland. Before he became a novelist, his first passion was poetry. Inspired by artists like Queen Latifah, The Notorious B.I.G., and Tupac, he was nine when he started reading and writing poems. He graduated with a BA in English from University of Maryland, even though he was frustrated with discouragement by his English professors. In college, he also discovered a love of spoken word performances. During this time, he self-published several books of poetry.

After moving to New York City, Jason collaborated on a indie-published book called SELF, with his friend Jason Griffin. Griffin’s visual art was paired with Reynolds’ poetry. This book earned them the attention of an agent, and soon they had a book contract. They collaborated on another book called My Name Is Jason, Mine Too, published in 2008, which was a joint memoir about moving to New York, their art, and their dreams.

Jason became discouraged when he was rejected from graduate school, but his friend, Chris Myers (son of famous Black author Walter Dean Myers) told him that because of his father aging, there would soon be a shortage of books about Black children, especially Black boys. Encouraged by this, Jason went on to write When I Was The Greatest, published in 2014, which won the Coretta Scott King Book Award and the John Steptoe award for new talent.

Jason went on to write several more books for children and teens. His work has won several more awards, like Walter Dean Myers Award, NAACP Image Award, a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, an Edgar Award, and a National Book Award. Jason currently lives in Washington, DC.

Links to some of my favorite Jason Reynolds’ books:

A note: These Amazon links point to Amazon Smile, Amazon’s affiliate charity program. If you have not set up Amazon Smile, I encourage you to point it to an organization like Ujamaa Place,a nonprofit that helps provide holistic services to men experiencing homelessness and poverty.

Some links:

Image is from https://www.instagram.com/p/CALWU0YnjWE/