Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with over one million books sold. TIME named Watson a 2026 Visionary, honoring her commitment to helping children and young people reach their full potential.

Watson has spent her career writing about Black girls finding their power, communities rebuilding after loss, and the quiet dignity of being seen. That work has earned her some of the most prestigious honors in children's and young adult literature. Her middle grade novel All the Blues in the Sky received the John Newbery Medal, awarded to “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.” Piecing Me Together received a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor. Her poetry collection Black Girl You Are Atlas received a Coretta Scott King Honor and Walter Dean Myers Award. Her debut adult fiction novel, skin & bones, was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year. She has written over 20 books, including Ways to Make Sunshine and the critically acclaimed picture book The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, co-written with Nikole Hannah-Jones.

For over twenty years, Watson taught creative writing and theater as a writer-in-residence in schools and community centers across the country. As an educator, Watson uses the arts to help youth cope with trauma and engage with social issues. Her picture book A Place Where Hurricanes Happen grew out of poetry workshops she led with children in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Watson was among the first authors invited to give a reading at the Obama Presidential Center. She has also given keynotes and readings at the United Nations, the Library of Congress, and U.S. embassies in South Korea, Japan, and New Zealand. She serves on the Education Advisory Council for the Academy of American Poets. She splits her time between Portland, Oregon, and New York City.

Kid-Friendly Bio

Special Projects

Renée Watson Cottage

Highlights Foundation has established the Renée Watson Cottage on its campus located at the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. It is open now, and was personally designed by Watson to be a space where children’s writers and illustrators will feel inspired to reflect and create. For more information visit:
The Highlights Foundation

i, too arts collective

We leased the Harlem brownstone where Langston Hughes lived and created the last twenty years of his life from 2016 - 2019. Founded by writer Renée Watson, our mission was to build upon Hughes' legacy by nurturing voices from underrepresented communities in the creative arts. We did this through commemorating, preserving, and activating the historic site with dynamic literary and cultural arts programming for established and youth writers alike. Though we are no longer in that physical space, we invite you to join us in reflecting on the community of artists, educators and neighbors we had the opportunity to convene and collaborate with. Please visit this digital space frequently, as we will share updates and special announcements around the release of our archive.Through the archive, our aim is to show an interior look into the collective through its movements in community engagement and space making.