Jason Reynolds

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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 several 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 Edwards Award.

In 2024, Reynolds was named a MacArthur Fellow.