Long Bio

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, Emmy®-award winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 39 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including The Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, The Coretta Scott King Author Honor, Three NAACP Image Award Nominations, and the 2017 Inaugural Pat Conroy Legacy Award.

Kwame is also the Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Writer of Emmy-award winning series The Crossover, based on his Newbery-Medal winning novel of the same name, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. The Crossover was produced in partnership with LeBron James' SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Kwame's production company where he serves as CEO and Co-founder, dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment.

Other current projects in development at Big Sea include America’s Next Great Author, the groundbreaking reality television series for writers, and an animated series based off of the book The World of ¡Vamos! by Raúl the Third, in partnership with Sony Pictures Television – Kids (formerly known as Silvergate Media). In January 2023, a Kennedy Center-commissioned national tour for young audiences began for Alexander’s musical Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie: Starring Indigo Blume, which is based on two of his beloved children’s books, Acoustic Rooster and Indigo Blume. An animated series based on Acoustic Rooster is also currently in production at GBH.

Kwame was recently appointed as the Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts for Chautauqua Literary Arts, and also serves as their Inaugural​ Writer-in-Residence. A regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, Kwame is the creator and host of the Why Fathers Cry podcast featuring conversations about love and parenting and loss, with fathers and sons.

Additionally, Kwame regularly serves as a keynote and guest speaker at hundreds of thousands of schools, libraries, organizations and conferences around the world. He has shared his passion for literacy, books and the craft of writing at events like the Chautauqua Lecture Series, the Edinburgh Book Festival, Aspen Ideas, Asheville Ideas Fest, and the Global Literacy Symposium in Ghana, where he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana.

His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.