It Takes Two: On Writing Novels in Verse

Ibi Zoboi novel American Street was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. She is also the author of Pride and My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich. She is the editor of the anthology Black Enough. Dr. Yusef Salaam was just fifteen years old when his life was upended after being wrongly convicted with four other boys in the “Central Park jogger” case. After the young men spent years of their lives behind bars, in 2002 their sentences were overturned. The story of the Exonerated Five has been documented in the award-winning film The Central Park Five by Ken Burns and in Ava DuVernay’s series When They See Us. Yusef is now a poet, prison reform activist, and inspirational speaker. Punching the Air (Balzer + Bray) is a YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, called it “Award-worthy. Soul-stirring. A must-read.”

Kwame Alexander is the author of 37 books, The Undefeated, How to Read a Book, Swing, Rebound and his middle grade novel, The Crossover. As the host of the new kid’s television program, WordPlay, and Founding Editor of VERSIFY, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Kwame aims to Change the World One Word at a Time. James Patterson is a prolific author who has written detective stories, thrillers, science fiction, romance and young adult novels. Many of Patterson’s books have featured Detective Alex Cross, the protagonist of Along Came a Spider, Kiss the Girls, and Pop Goes the Weasel. He holds The New York Times record for most #1 New York Times bestsellers by a single author. The creator of the Max Einstein series and founded JIMMY Patterson to publish books that young readers will love. Illustrator Dawud Anyabwile, formerly known as David J. A. Sims, produced the Brotherman Comics series which was instrumental in bringing awareness to Black owned comic book publishing companies. Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. In Becoming Muhammad Ali (Jimmy Patterson) Alexander and Patterson join forces with illustrator Dawud Anyabwile to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced, and his discovery of boxing. Readers will learn about Cassius’ family and neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky, and how, after a thief stole his bike, Cassius began training as an