Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson (born February 12, 1963, in Columbus, Ohio) is an American writer of books for children, adolescents, and adults, widely recognized for her explorations of African American experiences. She grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and Brooklyn, New York, and is the author of numerous award-winning works, including her National Book Award–winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming and Newbery Honor titles After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. Her picture books The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly have been New York Times bestsellers.

Woodson has received many major honors, among them the 2014 National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming, multiple Coretta Scott King Awards, Newbery Honors, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. She served as Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017 and was the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2018–2019, reflecting her prominent role in contemporary children’s and YA literature.