Jason Reynolds: The Education of a Literary Voice
Jason Reynolds, born in 1983, has become a prominent voice in young adult and middle-grade literature. His work, characterized by its gritty realism, humor, and exploration of complex social issues, has garnered numerous awards and accolades. This article delves into the educational journey that shaped Reynolds into the acclaimed author he is today.
Early Influences: Rap, Poetry, and a Disconnect from Books
Reynolds's early life played a crucial role in shaping his literary path. Growing up in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C., he found himself drawn to the rhythm and rhyme of rap music at the age of nine. He was particularly interested in the lyrics of Queen Latifah and her album Black Reign (1993), finding inspiration in rap to begin writing poetry. This early exposure to the power of language and storytelling through music laid the foundation for his future writing career.
However, Reynolds also experienced a disconnect from traditional literature during his youth. He has recounted how he stopped reading books for several years because he could not find any that were relevant to his upbringing in a poor Black community. He did not read an entire novel until age 17. School, back then, discouraged whatever relationship I could have had with books by not providing me, and kids like me, with options. All I needed was something familiar. A family like mine. A neighborhood like mine. Language like mine. This lack of representation in the books he was assigned in school led to a sense of alienation and a disinterest in reading. Despite struggling at times with English classes, Reynolds graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2005.
Discovering African American Literature: A Turning Point
Despite his initial disinterest in books, Reynolds's passion for poetry persisted throughout high school and college. During college, Reynolds also worked at a DC bookstore chain called Karibu Books, which specialized in African-American literature. At Karibu he encountered prose that resonated with him for the first time, such as Richard Wright's novel Black Boy. Enthralled with Wright's novel from the first page, Reynolds next began making his way through the great works of African-American literature on the store's shelves, reading James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison. This exposure to the works of Black writers proved to be a turning point in his education, igniting a newfound appreciation for literature and its power to reflect diverse experiences.
Early Career and Collaboration: Finding His Voice
After graduating from college, Reynolds moved to New York with a classmate, Jason Griffin; in 2005, the pair self-published a collaboration, collecting Griffin's visual art and Reynolds's poetry, called SELF. The book earned the pair an agent and then a book contract. Four years later they published My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.: Our Story. Our Way, a memoir about moving to New York to pursue their dreams, expressed through Reynolds's poetry and Griffin's illustrations. 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). Although the book was not a financial success, it marked an important step in Reynolds's development as a writer. In the meantime, Reynolds moved home to DC in 2008 after losing his apartment in New York. He worked at a department store-the Lord & Taylor in North Bethesda, Maryland-to pay the bills, going to a Borders bookstore on his lunch break to see his book arrive on the shelf in 2009. Eventually, Reynolds returned to New York, again working in retail while he applied to graduate school, unsuccessfully because of his college grades.
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The Influence of Walter Dean Myers and the Birth of a Young Adult Novelist
Reynolds had told Chris he had basically stopped writing, but Chris pointed out that with his father aging (the elder Myers died in 2014), there would soon be a shortage of new works written about young black children, particularly black boys. He suggested Reynolds look at some of his father's old works, and The Young Landlords particularly connected with Reynolds; the work gave Reynolds the confidence to "write in my voice, use my tongue, my language, my style, and write a story. Spurred by this encouragement, Reynolds began writing his first young adult novel, "often while standing at the cash register when business was slow" at the Rag & Bone store he managed.
Prolific Author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Reynolds’s first published young adult novel is When I Was the Greatest (2014), about a teenager in an urban neighborhood who grapples with friendship, family, and his relationship with where he lives. It won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Reynolds began to write prolifically after that and published several novels within the next few years. In All American Boys (2015), which Reynolds wrote with Brendan Kiely, a Black teenager is beaten by a white policeman, and a white teenage witness has to decide whether he will speak out while the surrounding community begins to take sides. The Boy in the Black Suit (2015), which examines a low point in the life of a 17-year-old boy and his subsequent friendship with a girl who helps him cope, explores its characters’ relationship with death and the nuances of grief. As Brave As You (2016) centers on a young boy and his brother who spend the summer with their grandparents. Delving into the themes of a family’s legacy, forgiveness, and what it means to come of age, it won the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature. Reynolds’s Track series follows middle-school students on a track team. Books in the series include Ghost (2016), Patina (2017), and Sunny and Lu (both 2018). The series investigates family relationships, grief, and navigating responsibility as a young adult. Meanwhile, Reynolds wrote Long Way Down (2017), a novel in verse. It is a story about a teenager who must decide whether he is going to avenge the killing of his brother, thereby obeying the social code of his community, or whether he will stop the cycle of violence. Long Way Down reflects some of Reynolds’s personal experiences: when he was 19, he lost one of his friends to murder. For Every One (2018) is a letter written as a long poem that encourages people to define their dreams and, through struggle, make them a reality. Reynolds first performed the work in public before publishing it in book form. In 2017 Marvel published Reynolds’s young adult novel Miles Morales: Spider-Man, about an unassuming adolescent who turns out to be Spider-Man. He eventually wrote a sequel, Miles Morales Suspended (2023). Reynolds’s Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks (2019) is a children’s book that recounts the adventures of 10 groups of kids as they leave school. He then collaborated with Ibram X. Kendi on the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020), a young adult version of Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016). Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a position he held until 2022. In 2021 Reynolds published Stuntboy, In the Meantime, a middle-grade novel about a young superhero featuring illustrations by Raúl the Third; its sequel, Stuntboy, In-Between Time, was released two years later. In 2022 Reynolds again teamed with Griffin, on Ain’t Burned All the Bright. The book, with Reynolds’s verse and Griffin’s collage artwork, revolves around Black life in America, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests that arose after the death of George Floyd in May 2020. Reynolds also launched My Mother Made Me, a four-episode podcast with his mother, in 2022. They discuss his upbringing, their spirituality, and the memories they share. There Was a Party for Langston (2024) was Reynolds’s first picture book. Featuring illustrations by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey, the book celebrates the poetry of the great American poet Langston Hughes. Kirkus named it one of the best picture books of the year, and it also received a Caldecott Honor from the American Library Association.
Teaching and Continued Growth
In addition to his writing, Reynolds is a faculty member at Lesley University’s Writing for Young People Master of Fine Arts program. In 2024 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
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