Jacqueline Woodson

America's #23 Best-Selling Black Author of 2026

America's #20 Best-Selling Black Author of 2025

America's #29 Best-Selling Black Author of 2024

25-time AALBC.com Bestselling Author

Biography

I used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.”

Jacqueline Woodson has received numerous awards for her middle-grade and young adult books, which include the National Book Award Win for Brown Girl Dreaming, multiple Coretta Scott King Awards and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Miracle’s Boys.

Born on February 12, 1963, in Columbus, Ohio, Woodson grew up in Greenville, S.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated from college with a B.A. in English. A former drama therapist for runaways and homeless children in New York City, she now writes full-time. Woodson also enjoys reading the works of emerging writers and encouraging young people to write; heated political conversations with her friends; and sewing.

ISNI: 0000 0000 8396 8439

Jacqueline Woodson (https://aalbc.it/jacwood) is presented with the 2014 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. The award was presented by Sharon M. Draper. Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket served as the MC for the awards ceremony, which was presented by the National Book Foundation on November 19, 2014 at Cipriani, Wall Street in New York City.

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