Jason Reynolds

Jason Reynolds (born December 6, 1983) is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle grade audiences. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds found inspiration in rap and had an early focus on poetry, publishing many poetry collections before his first novel in 2014, When I Was the Greatest, which won the John Steptoe Award for New Talent.

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). Ghost was a finalist for the National Book Award 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. Reynolds also wrote a Marvel Comics novel called Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017).

In 2017, Reynolds returned to poetry with Long Way Down, a novel in verse that was named a Newbery Honor book, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, and best young adult work by the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Awards. In 2019, he wrote Look Both Ways, for which he won a Carnegie Medal.

From 2020 to 2022, Reynolds was the Library of Congress' National Ambassador for Young People's Literature.

In 2023, Reynolds won the Margaret A. Edwards Award.

In 2024, Reynolds was named a MacArthur Fellow. in Washington, DC, and grew up in Oxon Hill, a neighborhood where his mother, a special education teacher in a public school, could afford a house with a yard and enough space for Reynolds, his three siblings and other family members.

At nine years old, Reynolds began writing poetry after being inspired by Queen Latifah's third album, Black Reign. Queen Latifah and other rappers, like Tupac and Biggie, influenced him and resonated with his childhood experiences in the 1980s and 1990s; he didn't start reading books until he was 17.

While an undergraduate, Reynolds began to collaborate with Jason Griffin, who became his roommate, and began performing, including eventually solo shows, and published his first book in 2001,

As a college student, Reynolds also worked at a DC bookstore chain called Karibu Books, which specialized in African-American literature.

Selected works Reynolds does not start with a particular age audience in mind; instead he focuses on trying to write the voice of his characters authentically and lets that dictate whom the book would appeal to. All of his writings feature minority characters, which he sees as a reflection of the modern world. They published the book with the HarperTeen imprint of HarperCollins, working with editor Joanna Cotler (after Cotler retired, she referred him to Caitlin Dlouhy, who would become the editor on his next seven books). —"often while standing at the cash register when business was slow" at the Rag & Bone store he managed a young adult novel set in Reynolds' own neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. For the work, Reynolds won the 2015 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent from the American Library Association. The book depicts a black teenager assaulted in a convenience store by a white police officer who wrongly suspects him of stealing. The book is written in two voices, with Reynolds writing from the point of view of the teenaged victim, Rashad Butler, in a hospital bed, while Kiely wrote the character Quinn Collins, a white teenager and family friend of the police officer, who witnessed the violent attack.

The book won the inaugural Walter Dean Myers Award from the We Need Diverse Books organization, as well as a Coretta Scott King Honor.

As Brave as You (2016)

In 2016, Reynolds published As Brave as You, which won the 2016 Kirkus Prize, the 2017 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teen, the 2017 Schneider Family Book Award, and the 2017 Coretta Scott King Honor. The book describes two African-American brothers from Brooklyn who are sent to spend the summer with their grandfather in Virginia. In The Washington Post, a reviewer said, "Reynolds deftly blends humor and heart through lively dialogue and spot-on sibling dynamics." a National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature. Reviewing Ghost in The New York Times, Kate Messner said that in his title character, Reynolds has created a protagonist "whose journey is so genuine that he's worthy of a place alongside Ramona and Joey Pigza on the bookshelves where our most beloved, imperfect characters live." Ghost was published by the Caitlyn Dlouhy imprint of Atheneum on August 30, 2016.

Three more books have followed in the series. Patina (2017) depicts another young star runner, Patina "Patty" Jones. Patty feels out of place at her nearly all-white private school. Patty and her younger sister live with their dead father's brother and his white wife because their birth mother is unable to take care of them after losing her legs due to diabetes. Critics noted the deft way the book handles many issues Reynolds wanted to write about the special burdens some teen girls assume in their families. The Horn Book Magazine, and Booklist.

The third installment in the series, called Sunny, was released on April 10, 2018. Paste magazine named the audiobook, narrated by Guy Lockard, one of the 13 best of 2018 to date, saying, "The whole series is a must-listen, but Sunny is a particular treat" thanks to the Lockard's portrayal of the "lolling, goofball voice" of the novel's first-person protagonist.

The fourth installment in the series, called Lu, was released October 23, 2018.

The fifth book in the series, Coach, was released on October 14, 2025.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017) Reynolds is the author of Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017), a novel based on the Marvel Comics' Afro-Puerto Rican teen character. Reynolds has described his ambitions for the book as similar to Jordan Peele's approach to Get Out, namely to engage the audience with systemic social issues by "distill[ing] it down to a single family." Speaking to School Library Journal, Reynolds said, "It was a trip to take these issues I care so much about and figure out what they look like as a person. What do they sound like? How do they dress? How do they act? What do they do?" a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, a Walter Dean Myers Award from the We Need Diverse Books organization, a Coretta Scott King Honor, and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth/Teens. An adaptation by Martine Kei Green-Rogers of Long Way Down was commissioned by the Kennedy Center and performed at the Kennedy Center's Family Theater in October/November 2018.

In October 2020, a graphic novel edition of Long Way Down was published with art by Danica Novgorodoff.

For Every One (2018)

On April 10, 2018, Reynolds released For Every One, a work of poetry. He originally performed the poem at the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at the Kennedy Center. Two weeks later, Reynolds occupied three slots on The New York Times best-seller lists for children's literature: two on the young adult hardcover list (Long Way Down and For Every One), and one on the children's series list for the Track series.

"Ten Things I've Been Meaning to Say to You" (2018) Reynolds published a list for teenagers with 10 things he thought they should know about life and their futures. It was posted on May 28, 2018, on Powell's Book Blog.

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks (2019)

Look Both Ways was published on October 8, 2019. The story is told across ten blocks in different perspectives as middle schoolers walk home from school. On the day of its release, Look Both Ways became a finalist for the National Book Award and later made the New York Times Best Sellers List. Jason Reynolds explained that he wanted to explore kids' autonomy in this book, saying, "It is a time when they are unsupervised" and they "get to learn about the world on their own, for better or for worse." He won the 2021 Carnegie Medal for the book.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2019–2021)

Reynolds announced Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You in August 2019 in collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi. Releasing in March 2020, Reynolds' book is an adaptation of Kendi's book Stamped from the Beginning, which won the National Book Award in 2016.

In 2021, Reynolds, alongside Kendi and Sonja Cherry-Paul, published Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You, which was illustrated by Rachelle Baker. The book is a New York Times best seller.

Podcast series, Radiotopia presents: My Mother Made Me (2022)

In 2022, Reynolds wrote and hosted My Mother Made Me, a podcast he made in collaboration with Radiotopia. The podcast description reads, "My Mother Made Me is a four-episode series from Radiotopia Presents, where writer Jason Reynolds and his mother, Isabell, explore their shared history, how she raised him, and what they’re teaching each other. They go deep – birth, death, spirituality… but they also keep it light: pushing a cart through Costco, birthday lunches, and hitting the casino together. That’s just how they do."

There Was a Party for Langston (2023)

Reynolds released his first picture book for kids, There Was a Party for Langston, in 2023. Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey illustrated the book. Reynolds was inspired by a photograph of writers Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing at a party at the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The party was for the grand opening of the Langston Hughes Auditorium in the center. He wanted the book to evoke the feeling of "rumpus time."

Selected awards and honors

Honors

2020 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature at the Library of Congress 2024 MacArthur Fellow

Publications

Standalone books

Stuntboy series

Track series

Podcast series Radiotopia presents: My Mother Made Me (2022)