Meet the author

Kwame Alexander.

Writer · United States · b. 1968

Kwame Alexander: Newbery-winning American author of The Crossover, Booked and Rebound — rhythmic, performance-driven middle-grade verse novels about brothers, sport and identity, for ages 9–14.

Kwame Alexander is an American author and poet born in 1968, best known for The Crossover (Newbery Medal, 2015), a middle-grade verse novel about twin basketball-playing brothers, and its sequels Booked, Rebound, and the Door of No Return YA series. Alexander's voice is rhythmic, performance-driven, deeply rooted in spoken-word and poetry-slam traditions, which gives his middle-grade verse novels exceptional read-aloud quality. He has also written picture books, YA fiction and adult poetry. A core contemporary American middle-grade author for ages 9–14, particularly important to inclusive reading shelves and to readers who like sports-and-poetry combined.