Moved by these experiences of 'the power of language', he continued to pursue poetry through high school, graduating from Bishop McNamara High School in 2000, and college, even as he received poor grades and discouragement from professors in his English courses at the University of Maryland (he ultimately graduated with a BA in English.) He wrote a few lines in an effort to console his mother, who printed the poem on the program for the funeral, and after that Reynolds wrote poems as each of his grandmother's siblings passed. One of Reynolds's earliest poems dealt with his grandmother's death in 1994 when he was 10. In the meantime, Tupac and Biggie also formed major influences. Outside of her rap, few literary works spoke to his experience of urban life growing up as a black child and then teenager in the 1980s and 1990s, and he didn't start reading books until he was 17. Third album, Black Reign, to start writing poetry. Īt nine years old, Reynolds was inspired by Queen Latifah's Reynolds was born on December 6, 1983, in Washington, DC, and grew up just across Maryland border in Oxon Hill, a neighborhood where his mother, a specialĮducation teacher in a Maryland public school, could afford a house with a yard and enough space for Reynolds, his three siblings, and sometimes other extended family. Reynolds was named as the Library of Congress' national ambassador for young people's literature in January 2020. In 2019, he wrote Look Both Ways, for which he won a Carnegie Medal. In 2017, Reynolds returned to poetry with Long Way Down, a novel in verse that was named a Newbery Honor book, a Printz Honor Book, and best young adult work by the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Awards. Reynolds also wrote a Marvel Comics novel called Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017).

Ghost was a National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature and As Brave As You won the Kirkus Prize, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teen, and the Schneider Family Book Award. In the next four years, Reynolds wrote eight more novels, most notably the New York Times best-selling Track series- Ghost (2016), Patina (2017), Sunny (2018), Lu (2018),-and As Brave As You (2016).

and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds found inspiration in rap and had an early focus on poetry, publishing several poetry collections before his first novel in 2014, When I Was The Greatest, which won the Coretta Scott King/ John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

Jason Reynolds (born December 6, 1983) is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teen Coretta Scott King – John Steptoe Award for New Talent

Jason reynolds ghost series