About 18 years ago, Kwame Alexander was struggling to sell a novel in verse about twin brothers who are star basketball players at their middle school. Finally, after weathering rejections from more than 20 publishers, Alexander got a yes.

When that novel, “The Crossover,” was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2014, it was a wild success. It won the John Newbery Medal in 2015, grew into a trilogy that went on to sell more than 2 million copies, was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning TV series for Disney and is currently being reimagined as a stage musical.

“My career is a master class in being told no and being rejected,” Alexander said. “Ultimately, you’ve got to keep taking the shot.”

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