Today, Tom’s guest is award-winning young-adult author, poet and educator Kwame Alexander. He has written 28 books, including "Booked," which was nominated for a National Book Award, and "The Crossover," winner of the Newberry Medal for middle grades novel. "Swing," his latest novel co-written with Mary Rand Hess, is a follow-up to "The Crossover."
He is the winner of many awards, including the Coretta Scott King Author Honor and the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Prize, and he’s received three NAACP Image Award nominations. He’s also the founder of Versify, a publishing arm of Houghton Mifflin, and he hosts a literary show called Bookish, which airs on Facebook Watch.
Known to many from his frequent appearances on NPR’s Morning Edition, he is one of America’s most persuasive Pied Pipers when it comes to igniting a love of reading and exploration in young and old alike.
Kwame Alexander joins Tom to discuss his new book, discovering his voice as a child and the eternal pursuit of finding your cool. This conversation was pre-recorded.
