Welcome to season two of the podcast A Brave Writers Life and Brief. I'm Julie Bogart, your host.

As writers, we got to write the things that we are passionate about.

You got to know the rules before you break them.

If I don't believe in myself, then how can I expect someone else to?

Today on the podcast, I have a special treat for you.

Last August, I attended a writing conference in New York City.

The guest speaker was none other than Kwame Alexander.

Kwame is the author of a slew of books for kids.

His most notable title, The Crossover, the 2015 winner of the Newberry Award and the Coretta Scott King Award.

Grave writer selects 10 books per year to study for junior and senior high students

through our Boomerang program.

I had selected the crossover as our boomerang book title

for February 2017

before I even knew I'd get the chance to meet Quame and hear him speak.

It's with real pleasure that I share him with you today.

As you're about to find out, Quame has a big personality filled with a great sense of humor, passion, and poetry.

He believes poetry can change the world, and he's a

a regular speaker at schools and conferences in the US,

and he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love. Most recently he and his team visited

Ghana where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional

development to 300 teachers.

I invited Quame to talk with us about his journey as an author,

...