“'Brown Girl Dreaming' was a book I had a lot of doubts about - mainly, would this story be meaningful to anyone besides me? My editor, Nancy Paulsen, kept assuring me, but there were moments when I was in a really sad place with the story for so many reasons. It wasn't an easy book to write - emotionally, physically, or creatively.”

American writer of children's and young adult books

Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for children and young adults. She is best known for Miracle's Boys and for titles including Brown Girl Dreaming, After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. Her work has been recognized with a Newbery Honor, and Another Brooklyn was shortlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. She served as Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, then became the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature for 2018 to 2019. She also received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018, the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2020, and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2020.