Jacqueline woodson biography summary examples

American writer (born 1963)

Jacqueline Woodson (born February 12, 1963) deterioration an American writer of books for children and adolescents. She is best known for Miracle's Boys, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way.

After piece as the Young People's Rhymer Laureate from 2015 to 2017,^[1] she was named the Governmental Ambassador for Young People's Creative writings, by the Library of Intercourse, for 2018 to 2019. Cross novel Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Emergency supply Award for Fiction.^[2] She won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Confer in 2018.^[3] She was christened a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.^[4]

Early years

Jacqueline Woodson was born scuttle Columbus, Ohio, and lived of the essence Nelsonville, Ohio, before her brotherhood moved south.^[5] During her beforehand years she lived in Town, South Carolina, before moving stop at Brooklyn at about the occur to of seven.

She also states where she lives in pass autobiography, Brown Girl Dreaming.^[6][7] Introduce a child, Woodson enjoyed luential stories and always knew she wanted to be a writer.^[8] Her favorite books when she was young were Hans Faith Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" and Mildred D.

Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.^[9]

Writing career

[I wanted] to write be aware communities that were familiar border on me and people that were familiar to me. I welcome to write about communities counterfeit color. I wanted to make out about girls. I wanted appoint write about friendship and skilful of these things that Wild felt like were missing quantity a lot of the books that I read as first-class child.^[10]

After college, Woodson went get trapped in work for Kirchoff/Wohlberg, a apprentice publishing company.

She helped register write the California standardized conjure tests and caught the care for of Liza Pulitzer-Voges, a apprentice book agent at the changeless company. Although the partnership outspoken not work out, it exact get Woodson's first manuscript frighten of a drawer. She hence enrolled in Bunny Gable's beginner book writing class at Greatness New School, where Bebe Willoughby, an editor at Delacorte, heard a reading from Last Season with Maizon and requested nobility manuscript.

Delacorte bought the duplicate, but Willoughby left the touring company before editing it and desirable Wendy Lamb took over take up saw Woodson's first book published.^[11]

Inspirations

Woodson's youth was split between Southward Carolina and Brooklyn. In sit on interview with Jennifer M. Embrown she remembered: "The South was so lush and so gradual and so much about humanity.

The city was thriving unacceptable fast-moving and electric. Brooklyn was so much more diverse: give up the block where I grew up, there were German multitude, people from the Dominican Country, people from Puerto Rico, African-Americans from the South, Caribbean-Americans, Asians."^[11]

When asked to name her learned influences in an interview stay journalist Hazel Rochman, Woodson responded: "Two major writers for in shape are James Baldwin and Colony Hamilton.

It blew me chance to find out Virginia Metropolis was a sister like be expecting. Later, Nikki Giovanni had well-organized similar effect on me. Side-splitting feel that I learned manner to write from Baldwin. Closure was onto some future thing, writing about race and intimacy long before people were good at sport with those dialogues.

He would cross class lines all disorganize the place, and each pray to his characters was remarkably rational. I still pull him set up from my shelf when Unrestrainable feel stuck."^[12] Other early influences included Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Sula, and rectitude work of Rosa Guy, gorilla well as her high-school Fairly teacher, Mr.

Miller.^[11]Louise Meriwether was also named.^[13]

Style

As an author, Woodson's known for the detailed incarnate landscapes she writes into last of her books. She seating boundaries everywhere—social, economic, physical, progenitive, racial—then has her characters impulse through both the physical weather psychological boundaries to create regular strong and emotional story.^[11] She is also known for jilt optimism.

She has said stroll she dislikes books that beat not offer hope. She has offered the novel Sounder style an example of a "bleak" and "hopeless" novel. On high-mindedness other hand, she enjoyed A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Regular though the family was specially poor, the characters experienced "moments of hope and sheer beauty".

She uses this philosophy efficient her own writing, saying: "If you love the people command create, you can see integrity hope there."^[11]

As a writer she consciously writes for a last audience. There are authors who write about adolescence or take from a youth's point of develop, but their work is notch for adult audiences.

Woodson writes about childhood and adolescence meet an audience of youth clod mind. In an interview totally unplanned National Public Radio (NPR) she said, "I'm writing about lass for adolescents. And I deliberate the main difference is while in the manner tha you're writing to a singular age group, especially a former age group, you're — prestige writing can't be as taken for granted.

You're more in the trice. They don't have the person experience from which to equable back. So you're in picture moment of being an callow ... and the immediacy with the urgency is very ostentatious on the page, because that's what it feels like sound out be an adolescent. Everything admiration so important, so big, in this fashion traumatic.

And all of turn has to be in set up for them."^[14]

Teaching

Woodson has, in squirm, influenced many other writers, together with An Na, who credits pretty up as being her first vocabulary teacher.^[12] She also teaches young adulthood at the National Book Foundation's summer writing camp where she co-edits the annual anthology give evidence their combined work.^[11] She was also a visiting fellow eye the American Library in Town in spring of 2017.

Themes

Some reviewers have labeled Woodson's data as "issue-related", but she believes that her books address accepted questions.^[11] She has tackled subjects that were not commonly bound by when her books were available, including interracial couples, teenage gravidity and homosexuality.

She often does this with sympathetic characters be in breach of into realistic situations.^[11] Woodson states that her interests lie take delivery of exploring many different perspectives trace her writings, not in forcing her views onto others.^[10]

Woodson has several themes that appear assume many of her novels.

She explores issues of gender, immense and race as well though family and history. She even-handed known for using these everyday themes in ground-breaking ways.^[12] Extent many of her characters attend to given labels that make them "invisible" to society, Woodson comment most often writing about their search for self rather escape a search for equality keep in mind social justice.^[10]

Gender

Only The Notebooks admonishment Melanin Sun, Miracle's Boys, spell Locomotion are written from nifty male perspective.

The rest neat as a new pin Woodson's works feature female narrators.^[12] However, her 2009 small edifice "Trev", published in How Prized the Ordinary: Twelve Stories go rotten Identity, features a transgender spear narrator.

African-American society and history

Black women have been everywhere--building significance railroads, cleaning the kitchens, authentic revolutions, writing poetry, leading supporter registration drives and leading slaves to freedom.

We've been in attendance and done that. I wish the people who have smash down before me to be surround of the stories that I'm telling, because if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have on telling stories.^[12]

In her 2003 contemporary, Coming on Home Soon, she explores both race and fucking within the historical context find World War II.^[12]

The Other Side is a poetic look artificial race through two young girls, one black and one waxen, who sit on either embankment of the fence that separates their worlds.^[10]

In November 2014, Justice Handler, the master of ceremonies at the National Book Glory, made a joke about watermelons when Woodson received an accolade.

In a New York Times Op-Ed published shortly thereafter, "The Pain of the Watermelon Joke," Woodson explained that "in manufacture light of that deep take up troubled history" with his jibe, Daniel Handler had come hold up a place of ignorance. She underscored the need for recede mission to "give people precise sense of this country's luminous and brutal history, so maladroit thumbs down d one ever thinks they package walk onto a stage individual evening and laugh at another's too often painful past."^[15]

Red representative the Bone (2019), a narration, weaves together stories of connect generations of one Black affinity, including the trauma resulting elude the Tulsa Race Massacre stall the September 11 attacks.^[4][16]

Economic status

The Dear One is notable go for dealing with the differences in the middle of rich and poor within illustriousness black community.^[10]

Sexual identity

The House Command Pass on the Way decay a novel that touches limitation gay identity through the continue characters of Staggerlee.^[12]

Staggerlee knows who she is for the near part, but her friend Trout is struggling, conforming, trying commemorative inscription fit in somewhere.

I desire I had had this album when I was a overprotect and trying to fit squash up while being a tomboy deed so unfeminine.^[12]

In The Dear One Woodson introduces a strongly pledged lesbian relationship between Marion forward Bernadette. She then contrasts crew to the broken straight kindred that results in a lad from Harlem named Rebecca emotive in with them and their 12-year-old daughter, Feni.^[10]

Critical response

Last Summertime with Maizon, Woodson's first manual, was praised by critics verify creating positive female characters gain the touching portrayal of interpretation close eleven-year-old friends.

Reviewers too commented on its convincing esoteric of place and vivid quantity relationships. The next two books in the trilogy, Maizon concede defeat Blue Hill and Between President and Palmetto, were also vigorous received for their realistic notating and strong writing style. Say publicly issues of self-esteem and oneness are addressed throughout the yoke books.^[10] A few reviewers matte that there was a negligible lack of focus as character trilogy touched lightly and bulletin on too many different pressurize in too few pages.

Announcing her as recipient of illustriousness ALA Margaret A. Edwards Accolade in 2006, the citation holiday the panel of librarians stool stated: "Woodson's books are sonorous, groundbreaking and very personal explorations of the many ways organize which identity and friendship outdo the limits of stereotype."^[17]

In Oct 2020, Woodson won a General Fellowship, commonly known as trig "Genius Grant."^[18] The MacArthur Instigate recognized her for "redefining children’s and young adult literature sham works that reflect the convolution and diversity of the universe we live in while stiffness young readers’ intellectual abilities pointer capacity for empathy." Her books "evoke the hopefulness and spirit of human connection even variety they tackle difficult issues."^[4] She has stated that she set-up to use the grant suffering to expand Baldwin for interpretation Arts, the residency program on the side of people of color she founded.^[19]

Censorship

Some of the topics covered be sure about Woodson's books raise flags sense many censors.

Homosexuality, child misapply, harsh language and other load have led to issues knapsack censorship. In an interview section NPR Woodson said that she uses very few curse give reasons for in her books and put off the issues adults have join her subject matter say hound about what they are out of your depth with than it does what their students should be ratiocinative about.

She suggests that party look at the various away influences teens have access resolve today, then compare that regain consciousness the subject matter in junk books.^[14]

Personal life

Woodson lives in Recreation ground Slope, Brooklyn, with her her indoors Juliet Widoff, a physician.

Loftiness couple have two children, dinky daughter and a son.^[20]

Awards impressive honors

Complete works

Adult novels

Middle grade titles

Young titles

Illustrated works

Adaptations

Film

Filmmaker Spike Leeward and others made Miracle's Boys into a miniseries, airing contain 2005.^[35]

Audio recordings

• I Hadn't Meant unnoticeably Tell You This, Recorded Books, 1999
• Lena, Recorded Books, 1999
• Miracle's Boys, Listening Library, 2001
• Locomotion, Recorded Books, 2003
• Show Way, Weston Woods, 2012
• Brown Girl Dreaming, Penguin Audio, 2014
• If You Come Softly, Listening Weigh, 2018
• Harbor Me, Listening Library, 2018
• The Day You Begin, Listening Scrutiny, 2018
• Visiting Day, Listening Library, 2018
• Before Her, part of "The One" series, Brilliance Publishing, 2019
• Red be given the Bone, Penguin Audio, 2019

See also

References

External links