Renée Watson

Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and community activist. Her young adult novel, Piecing Me Together (Bloomsbury, 2017) received a Coretta Scott King Award and the 2018 Newbery Medal. Her picture book, Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2012) received several honors, including an NAACP Image Award nomination in children’s literature.

Watson was a writer in residence for more than twenty years, teaching creative writing and theater in public schools and community centers throughout the nation. She founded I, Too Arts Collective, a nonprofit that was housed in the home of Langston Hughes from 2016–19. Watson is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a member of the Academy of American Poets’ Education Advisory Council. She is also a writer in residence in the Solstice low-residency creative writing program at Pine Manor College.