National Poetry Month Spotlight On: Kwame Alexander

By: Kamichi Jackson

It’s National Poetry Month and we’re putting the spotlight on one of the coolest and kid-friendliest writers ever: New York Times Bestselling and Newberry Award-winning author Kwame Alexander. Kwame is currently on tour with his latest release The Playbook, a collection of basketball rules for life. Classrooms and reading groups around the country are praising his book as “inspiring”, “stirring” and “earnest”.

But Kwame has been motivating readers long before this most recent release. He comes from a creative family and wrote his very first poem when he was just twelve years old.  In college, his love for poetry grew under the guidance of his college professor, award-winning poet laureate Nikki Giovanni. Fast-forward several years, and Kwame has captured the hearts of millions of fans around the world with his twenty-four published books, several of which have won prestigious awards along the way.
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As much as he loves poetry, though, Kwame doesn’t limit himself to that one form of storytelling. He also writes traditional literature. And since no writer can truly call themselves a writer unless they encourage kids to read and write, Kwame is also an advocate for literacy and creative writing—even holding literacy camps for kids and designing writing curriculum for teachers to use in the classroom.

Kwame is a funny, engaging, talented author and educator. Get to know him better during this year’s National Poetry Month by visiting his website at www.kwamealexander.com and following him on tour via Twitter (@kwamealexander).

Be sure to check out Kwame's The Playbook through Sweet Blackberry's Amazon Smile offering by clicking on the image below. 

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