Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize

 

"The world is full of paper. Write to me."
- Agha Shahid Ali, "Stationery"

 

Honoring the memory of a celebrated poet and a beloved teacher, the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry is awarded annually and is sponsored by the University of Utah Press and the University of Utah Department of English.

$1000 Cash Prize and Publication; Reading in the University of Utah's Guest Writers Series.

2011 Prize Submission Guidelines

• Manuscripts should be between 48 and 100 typed pages. Attach a cover sheet providing complete contact information, including name, address, telephone, and email address. No other identifying information should be included on the title page or on the manuscript itself.
• Submissions must be in English.
• Manuscripts must be postmarked during February 1 through March 31, 2011
• A check for the nonrefundable reading fee of $25 payable to the University of Utah Press must be included with the submission.
• Manuscripts will not be returned and will be discarded after the competition.
• Submitted poems may have appeared previously in journals, anthologies, or chapbooks, although the collection as a whole must be previously unpublished.
• The competition is open to poets who have previously published book-length poetry collections, as well as unpublished poets.
• Current and former students of the University of Utah and of the finalist judge may not enter. We support the CLMP Code of Ethics.
• Simultaneous submissions are permitted; however, entrants must notify the Press immediately if the collection submitted is accepted for publication elsewhere during the competition.

The winning manuscript will be chosen by David Gewanter of Georgetown University. The series editor will contact the winning poet and the results of the competition will be announced on this Web site by September 15, 2011. Please do not call the Press or the department of English to check on the status of your submission.

The winning collection will be published by the University of Utah Press in the spring of 2012. The winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize and will give a reading in the University of Utah's Guest Writers Series reading to take place during the fall or spring following publication. Travel and accommodations paid by the University of Utah English Department.

Address submissions to:
The University of Utah Press
c/o The Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry
J. Willard Marriott Library
Suite 5400
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0860

World Bank International Essay Competition 2011 focuses on “Youth Migration” – Deadline for Submission – March 17th

Posted on Saturday, March 5th, 2011 at 8:26 PM

By BellaNaija.com

Every year, the World Bank engages the minds of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 in a creative way through the International Essay Competition. Open to all young people, students and non-students alike, from all countries of the world, the essay contest showcases some of the most creative solutions to global issues across the globe. This year’s edition of the contest will be tackling the impact and implications of youth migration in a dynamic world. Read on for more details about the competition.

TOPIC: Youth Migration
Young people are on the move. Improvements in transportation, technology development and increased international trade, as well as issues such as unemployment, war, health and economic hardship have prompted more young people to migrate within and across national borders in search of work, education and a better quality of life. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that young people between 15 and 30 years of age account for about one-third of all migrants.

Nearly all young people are affected by migration in some way. Some are migrants themselves or are considering migrating abroad or within their home country. Others experience migration through the departure of friends or family members, and still others, in receiving countries, encounter the political debate on immigration and integration policies in their country and may experience cohabitation with new immigrants. Young people are major stakeholders in migration and yet youth are largely absent in the debate on international migration policies and the effects of migration on development.

The World Bank International Essay Competition 2011 would like to hear your views on the opportunities, challenges and implications of youth migration.

Questions to address in your essay / video :
1) How has migration (international or internal, in a sending or a receiving country) affected you, your family, your community, or your country?
2) How do you perceive the benefits of migration (increased opportunities for young people, remittances) versus the risks (brain drain, illegal immigration and exploitation of young immigrants)?
3) What actions can you recommend for broadening opportunities for young migrants in their countries of destination and their countries of origin?

We encourage you to draw on personal experiences when possible and focus on providing your own creative solutions for managing migration in a way that most benefits young people. You do not have to be a migrant yourself to respond on this essay, as you may refer to the experience of your friends and family or other migrants who enter, leave or move within your country. As migration is a multi-dimensional issue, please feel free to explore any aspect of migration that you relate to most, such as : rural to urban migration, international migration policy,
role of diasporas, forced migration, integration of immigrants, migration and development, remittances and skilled migration/brain drain.

Length and Format
General
*All work must be submitted by individuals, group work is not allowed.
*One participant may only submit one work per category. However, one participant may (but doesn’t have to, of course) submit work in both categories, that is: one essay and one video.
*All submissions must be made online via the Essay Competition website. Videos are submitted via YouTube.
*Submissions can be made in English, French or Spanish.

Essay
Your essay may not be longer than 4000 words (about 10 pages of standard text).
Essays are accepted in the following formats: .doc or .pdf.
You are also required to provide a summary of no more than 250 words. The summary will be used by the jury to make a pre-selection.
The submission process for the Essay Competition is entirely Internet-based. You are asked to fill in a submission form and attach your essay. Work submitted by email or post will not be accepted.
 

Video
Your video may not be longer than 2 minutes.
To submit a video, you must create a YouTube account and upload your work on the YouTube website. Additionally, you are required to submit a form via the Essay Competition website, which will allow us to identify your work. Click here for details of the submission process.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi

African in America or

African American?

The riddle of identity means I can live in the US for 20 years yet still be treated differently – by both black people and white

• Comments (142)

• 
• • Mukoma Wa Ngugi
  • guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 January 2011 13.30 GMT
  • Article history

Africans who live in America do not share the history of struggle for civil rights, and indeed, even today, do not experience racism in the same way – the 'African foreigner privilege', Mukoma W Ngugi calls it. Photograph: Corbis

"You do not know what it means to be black in this country," an American-born son told his African father. He was right. White America differentiates between Africans and African Americans, and Africans in the United States have generally accepted this differentiation. This differentiation, in turn, creates a divide between Africans and African Americans, with Africans acting as a buffer between black and white America.

It is with relief that some whites meet an African. And it is with equal relief that some Africans shake the hand proffered in a patronising friendship. Kofi Annan, the Ghanaian former UN secretary general, while a student in the United States, visited the South at the height of the civil rights movement. He was in need of a haircut, but this being the Jim Crow era, a white barber told him "I do not cut nigger hair." To which Kofi Annan promptly replied "I am not a nigger, I am an African." The anecdote, as narrated in Stanley Meisler's Kofi Annan: A Man of Peace in a World of War, ends with him getting his hair cut.

There are several interesting questions here. Why would Kofi Annan accept a haircut from a racist? Why did he not stand in solidarity with African Americans who, at that time, were facing lynching, imprisonment and other forms of violence simply for agitating for their rights? And equally intriguing, on what basis did the racist barber differentiate between African black skin and African American black skin? Is an African not racially black? At a time of racial polarisation in the US, what made the haircut possible?

Being black and African, these are the types of questions with which I constantly wrestle as I navigate through myriads of confusing, illogical, but always hurtful and destructive racial mores. I was born in Evanston, Illinois to Kenyan parents. We returned to Kenya when I was a few months old. I grew up in a small rural town outside of Nairobi, and attended primary and secondary school in Kenya before returning to the United States in 1990 for college. I have now lived in the United States half my life. What I have come learn is that in the United States, being African can get you into places being black and African American will not.

For instance, take the "African foreigner privilege". In Ohio, thirsting for a beer I walk into the closest bar. Silence. I order a beer and the white guy next to me says, "Where are you from? Where is your accent from?" I say, "Kenya." Relief, followed by the words "Welcome to America. I thought you were one of them." The thirsty writer in me is intrigued. Now that I am on the inside, I can ask "What do you mean?" "Well, you know how they are," followed by a litany of stereotypes. Eventually, I say my piece but the guy looks at me with pity: "You will see what I mean." Never mind that to his "Welcome to America," I said I had been in the US for 20 years.

The end result of the African foreigner privilege, usually dispensed with condescension, is that Africans are becoming buffers between white and black America. There is now a plethora of reports comparing African students to African American students. The conclusion is that if Africans fresh off the boat are doing better than African Americans who have been here for centuries, then racism can no longer be blamed. But the reports do not consider that, just maybe, at either Harvard or a community college, Africans experience race differently from African Americans. Africans experience a patronising but helpful racism, as opposed to the hostile, threatened and defensive kind that African Americans grow up with. Racism wears a smile when meeting an African; it glares with hostility when meeting an African American.

Africans in the US can end up becoming foils to continuing African American struggles, because they buy into the stereotypes. They end up seeing African Americans through a racist lens. This is not to say that African Americans have not themselves bought into racist stereotypes of Africans, where Africans are straight out of a Tarzan movie. But to the credit of African Americans, they have actively, through organisations like Africa Action and Trans-Africa Forum, agitated on Africa's behalf.

Indeed, Nelson Mandela once said that without African American support, ending apartheid would have taken much longer. But one will not find organisations in African countries that reciprocate – for example, seeking to end a racialised judicial system in the US that sees more black men in prison than in college. And Africans in the United States tend to stay away from protests against police brutality and racial profiling. True, the fear of immigration police and offending the host country play a part, but I think there are ways in which Africans do not see the African American struggle against racism as their fight, too.

Twenty years and counting in the US, I no longer feel a conflicted identity, one is that torn between being black in the United States and African. Going to Kenya this past December for the Kwani Literary Festival, I saw no contradiction between going home to Kenya and returning home to the US. I do not fully comprehend terms like cosmopolitan. I do not float around in a universal home. But it makes sense to me that one can have two homes at the same time. Not just in the physical sense, but in the deepest sense of the word – to be rooted, and to have roots growing, in two different places.

And as a writer and citizen, I have duties to each. I want to open up the contradictions that, in Kenya, keep the majority in oppressive ethnicised poverty and violence and, in the United States, racialised violence and poverty.

As an African and a black person, I feel, rightly or wrongly, that I have a duty to love both homes. And love need not always be pleasant – it can be demanding, defensive, angry and wrong, but it always wants to build, not destroy.

Watch Chinonye Chukwu’s Short Film And Help Make “alaskaLand”

By Cynthia, on March 4th, 2011

Filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu describes herself as “anomaly” of sorts, since she was born in Nigeria and raised in Alaska, and with your help she hopes to document some of those cultural differences in her first feature film alaskaLand.

“I grew up eating my mother’s jaloff rice for dinner and wanting to go dogmushing with my friends on weekends; avoiding cousins that make fun of me for not knowing my native language, and moose that plant themselves on my front yard,” she said.

“When I started pursuing my passion for filmmaking, I realized I had an experience that is worthy of sharing with the world and will give me an opportunity to pay homage to a place and a culture that has helped shape my sense of self and the world around me.”

The IndieGoGo description of the film states…”The story is an action-packed drama about a young, Nigerian-American man, Chukwuma, that is battling between both worlds while in his hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska: After separating for several years upon their parents’ death, Chukwuma is forced to reconnect with his younger sister, who has been living in Nigeria. But their reunion is far from welcoming, and the cultural friction within Chukwuma erupts in ways that bring him closer to understanding his roots and defining for himself just what they can be.”

 
The film is being sponsored by Fractured Atlas and is in need of tax-deductible contributions to cover travel, equipment rental and crew compensation.

Chukwu, who was awarded the prestigious Princess Grace Award (no small feat), has written and directed two award-winning shorts, Igbo Kwenu! and The Dance Lesson.

You can check out her campaign below as well as her short film The Dance Lesson. To make a contribution, click here. You can stay updated on her progress by visiting her blog here.

Meet the Filmmaker — Indiegogo.com/alaskaland from chinonye chukwu on Vimeo

Saturday March 05, 2011

Feature Hope For 'Pen and Mic' To Rescue Reading Culture By ORTON KIISHWEKO, 5th February 2011 @ 16:00

<p>Featured Artists from Pen&Mic 1 – February 2, 2011 from Pen and Mic on Vimeo.</p>

 

 

I used to be a fan of poetry but such interest is in most cases not able to flourish in a society where such art is not appreciated.

In fact, to date, I can still recite those lines in the famous ‘Orthello’ book, like I were its editor.

The only reason I remember it is because Mr Denis Sebuliba, who taught me literature in secondary school, made sure I read it over and over and it was always examined at the mocks and other exams.

However, my decade away from this interesting works doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize it as a very important pallet of art.

In fact, Sonnet, a form of lyrical poetry, is one of the reasons why names like William Shakespeare and Thomas Gray and John Milton are famous to date.

Locally, I have been a to a few poetry sessions, including the ones that used to be held at ‘Soma Cafe’.But with in the borders , my most memorable poetry round has to be at ‘Pen and Mic’, held last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mzungu Kichaa performs to the crowd which turned up at ‘Pen and Mic’ session at Saffron Restaurant in Quality Plaza. Photo courtesy of ‘Pen and Mic’.

 

Led by Omar Mohammed and Bgoya Mkuki, the crowd was fantastic and proved that poetry is not always dull and boring rehearsals, and this influenced a recent common statement, ‘Who thought poetry can not pull crowds.”

In retrospect, at institutions like University of Dar es salaam, the few names that always came to mind whenever poetry was mentioned had to be Prof Seith Chachage, Prof Issa Shivji, Professor Saida Yahya- Othman, Mr Bahiru Ally and a few other lecturers in departments of Languages.

It was cause for concern that there seemed to be no emerging young poets to push this art to a new level.

Well, that could be changing now. At last week’s ‘ Pen and Mic’ ,Mr Walter Bgoya, treated the crowd to poems from closer to home, giving one in Kiswahili and the one he gave in English showed that poetry is not just about only one language or a conformed style.

The poetry enthusiasts who filled the restaurant to listen to recital sessions played along. But with the literary precision of poets like Mr Walter Bgoya, will the next generation of Tanzanian poets match up?

It is perhaps the same reason that sessions like ‘Pen and Mic’ speak of an element of reviving the reading culture as among their objectives.

Certainly, when talk veers towards the country’s reading culture, people guffaw and ask: “Which one?” It is a known fact that many a person abhors reading.

Dr Lenny Kasonga , at University of Dar es salaam admits that generally, many people here are “terribly ignorant” because they do not read.

He says that even the little reading some people claim, like the newspapers, isn’t real reading because they sometimes simply peruse through the papers, as they look at the pictures.

Such a scenario can be attributed to the current limitation of African written word.-a society missing own written local content.

This makes the local society more of consumers of foreign content as opposed to local own content that bodes well with own surroundings.

But there are people who are out there attempting to change this.The recently started ‘Pen and Mic’ which illustrated the high profile rating the art continues to receive from lovers of  this aesthetic treasure that the literary community must reckon with, could have a role to play in this struggle.

Vitu vyetu, kivyetu Omar Mohammed and Bgoya Mkuki, who are behind the ‘Pen and Mic’ with assistance from Mr Walter Bgoya, say they are trying to encourage a reading culture in Tanzania.

“Our primary aim, through Pen & Mic, is to create a cultural space for artists - spoken word artists, writers, musicians, poets - to come and share their art with a responsive audience.

Not for money, but in the spirit of Art for Art’s sake and the desire to celebrate, to borrow a phrase, ‘vitu vyetu, kivyetu.’

Illustrated At the well attended Wednesday night session at Saffron Restaurant with in Quality Plaza, it was a show of legendary poetry and prose with some of Dar es Salaam’s most influential, prolific and outspoken literary commentators.

The tri-monthly session attracted a sophisticated crowd made of both literary intellects whose recitals were idiomatic, symbolist, metaphysical and Pan-African in theme.

There were major attractions as Fid Q, Langa Sarakikya, University of Dar es Salaam Professor Saida Yahya- Othman, Mr Walter Bgoya, Bumbuli youthful Legislator January Makamba, Chambi Chachage, and Mzungu Kichaa, Tanzania Football Federation Director of Marketing Jimmy Kabwe among others.

Langa Sarakikya’s exuded passion from her two poems could perhaps be explained in one line.”Okay, only poetry can take a person’s breath away, like looking at the photograph of an
old lover, or a picture of a thousand words. That’s what your does to me.”

It is now clear with the first two sessions having set the tone, more look forward to being part of these rare literary moment of poets and writers converging at the venue.

And with that, the sessions will perhaps script a new chapter in the books of the history of local arts.

For anyone who would like to perform at the next event email: penandmic@ gmail.com

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Featured artists from Pen&Mic, a FREE trimonthly event celebrating Poetry, Prose, and live music. 

 
Every night will have featured artists followed by OPEN MIC for those who want to play an instrument, sing or share a piece of literature.

 
For Updates on the next Pen&Mic join our FB group and follow us on Twitter @PENandMIC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this Dec. 13, 2010 file photo, author Walter Dean Myers tours his old Harlem neighborhood in New York. For many kids around the country, Walter Dean Myers is a must-read whose books have sold millions of copies and have a special appeal for the toughest of people to reach, boys. He is able, like few writers, to relate to his readers as they live today. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)
Photo Credit: AP Photo

Walter Dean Myers, 73, a hero to young readers

By HILLEL ITALIE

The Associated Press
Friday, March 4, 2011; 9:50 AM

 

NEW YORK -- It began as a competition between sixth-grader Jailen Swinney and a friend: Who could read a book faster?

But after finishing Walter Dean Myers' "Monster," a classic young adult novel about a teen on trial for being an accomplice to murder, Swinney had done more than win a race. She had discovered a book whose characters had similar experiences to people she knew.

"It opened my eyes," Swinney says. "It relates to many people and their families, friends who go through that with their family members."

Some fellow sixth-graders at The Harlem Children's Zone Promise Academy, a charter school in Manhattan, are also Myers fans. Devon Johnson likes "Slam," calling it "a real world situation" about a basketball guard living in a harsh neighborhood. Elijah Blades has read "Game," the story of a high schooler conflicted between sports and academics.

"It talked about stuff I wanted to know, like basketball, what's going on in the streets these days and how hard it is to get into college," says Blades, seated with his schoolmates at a small table in the school's library.

Among the kids at the Promise Academy and around the country, Walter Dean Myers is a must-read whose books have sold millions of copies and have a special appeal for the toughest of people to reach, boys. He is able, like few writers, to relate to his readers as they live today.

And he is old enough to be their grandfather.

Myers, 73, has written dozens of novels, plays and biographies. He has received three National Book Award nominations and won many prizes, including a lifetime achievement honor from the American Library Association and five Coretta Scott King awards for African-American fiction. He is also the most engaged of writers, spending hours with young people at schools, libraries and prisons, giving talks and advice on life and work, his own rise from high-school dropout to best-selling author, a story that translates across generations.

"I had an advantage in that I lived through all this stuff and have been able to think about it and to consider it. Why did I go in one direction, while these kids may or may not go in that direction," the tall, soft-spoken Myers, a resident of Jersey City, N.J., said during an earlier interview at a nearby Harlem library he visited often as a child, where the biggest change apparently is that the stairs seem steeper.

Myers' books are usually narrated by teenagers trying to make right choices when the wrong ones are so much more available. They're the 17-year-old hiding from the police in "Dope Sick," or the boarding school student in "The Beast" who learns his girlfriend is hooked on drugs. He is careful not to make judgments, and in "Monster," even leaves doubt over whether the narrator committed the crime.

"He does a great job of engaging teens because he writes about things they want to read about, whether it's going off to war or surviving the streets," says Kimberly Patton, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association and a librarian for teens at the Kansas City Public Library in Kansas City, Mo. "He doesn't talk down to teens. He always reaches teens on their level."

Kids love to check his work out from libraries, but libraries don't always carry his books. "Fallen Angels," a million-selling novel about a Vietnam soldier, appears occasionally on the American Library Association's annual list of books most criticized by parents and other members of the community. School districts in Indiana, Kansas and Mississippi have banned "Fallen Angels" for everything from violence to explicit language.

"I think it's silly. People don't understand that by withholding information from people, you hurt them. You're not protecting them," Myers says.

"I think people don't want books depicting black life, unless it's a certain kind. For example, you can have a young black kid who is very sassy and that's fine, especially if he's being raised by white people. But if you have a relationship in which there are black people, black youngsters who are unsure of themselves who use language in a certain way, curse a lot, they will ban it in a heartbeat."

One of five siblings, he was born Walter Milton Myers in Martinsburg, W.Va., in 1937. His mother died when he was 18 months old and Walter was sent up to Harlem and raised in a foster home by Herbert (a janitor) and Florence Dean (a cleaning woman and factory worker). In honor of his foster parents, he writes under the name Walter Dean Myers.

As he notes in his memoir, "Bad Boy," published in 2001, Myers had many identities growing up: athlete, reader, fighter, outcast. Nearly 5 feet tall by age 8 and 6 feet at age 12, he was a neighborhood star of the basketball court and stoop-ball games. But he also had a speech impediment so severe that classmates would laugh at him and Myers would lash out in return. He was often in fights, subjected to disciplinary beatings and was occasionally in trouble with the law, such as the time he and some friends sneaked into an empty city bus and drove off. At home, though, he was a different person, happy to read for hours.

"There were two very distinct voices going on in my head and I moved easily between them," Myers writes in his memoir. "One had to do with sports, street life and establishing myself as a male. ... The other voice, the one I had from my street friends and teammates, was increasingly dealing with the vocabulary of literature."

Myers was gifted enough to be accepted to one of Manhattan's best public schools, Stuyvesant, and unsteady enough to drop out. His family had little money and had to support his foster dad's father, unable to live on his own. Too poor to afford proper clothes, too shy to get on with his classmates, unable to keep up with the work, Myers began skipping school for weeks at a time and never graduated.

"I know what falling off the cliff means," he says. "I know from being considered a very bright kid to being considered like a moron and dropping out of school."

He joined the army at age 17 and served three years, "numbing years," he called them, "years of non-growing." When he got out, he tried just about anything. He was a factory worker, a messenger on Wall Street and an employee at a construction site, where a peer's lewd remarks about a young woman walking by so disgusted Myers he decided to quit and take up writing. He contributed to Alfred Hitchcock's mystery magazine and numerous sports publications. When his half- brother Wayne was killed in Vietnam, he wrote a tribute for Essence magazine.

Myers managed to get poetry and short fiction published in literary journals and men's magazines and joined the Harlem Writers Guild, an organization of black writers. His first book - "Where Does the Day Go?" - was published in 1969 after he won a contest for children's literature by people of color.

He had loved reading for much of his life, from Mark Twain to comics to Norwegian fairy tales, but only as an adult did he find books that had people like himself in them. A turning point was James Baldwin's "Sonny Blues," a short story with the kind of setting Myers would use often in his work: a Harlem teacher who worries about the futures of his students, including the title character, a heroin addict.

"Books transmit values," Myers says. "And if you're not in the books, what does that tell you? That tells you you're no longer valuable.

"There was a time I was no longer going to be black. I was going to be an `intellectual.' When I was first looking around for colleges, thinking of colleges I couldn't afford to go to, I was thinking of being a philosopher. I began to understand then that much of my feelings about race were negative.

"The kids I speak with, they don't like themselves, they become defensive. What they see is ...`real life is snappy answers. Everybody has a job. The house is never dirty and my life is a misery.' What's different about it? They come to the conclusion that at least part of it is because they're black, or because they're Latino."

Myers vowed he would write books he wished had been around when he was young. He not only places much of his work in Harlem, but carefully identifies the streets and schools and names of the stores. The plots are often inspired by what he hears when visiting schools and prisons.

"Lockdown," a National Book Award finalist last year, began after Myers met a kid who was afraid to get out of jail because he would only get in trouble again. For "Monster," he remembered a boy who would talk about the crimes he committed in the third person, as if someone else had committed them.

"Then I found out that all the guys could do that. They could separate themselves from their crimes," Myers says. "We come up with strategies for dealing with our lives and my strategy might be different because my life has been different."

His newest book, "Kick," is a unique collaboration with one of his readers. In 2007, Myers received an admiring e-mail from 13-year-old Ross Workman of Westfield, N.J., praising Myers for not sounding "like an adult when you're writing about kids."

Myers responded and the two became friendly enough that the author suggested that he and Ross collaborate on a novel about a troubled soccer star. Myers was skeptical that a teenager, any teenager, would stay with such a project, but the book was completed and Myers' publisher, HarperCollins, agreed to release it.

"I can't thank you enough for what you have done and taught me," Ross wrote to Myers.

__________________________

Autobiography
I was born on a Thursday, the 12th of August, 1937, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. My name at birth was Walter Milton Myers. For some strange reason I was given to a man named Herbert Dean who lived in Harlem. I consider it strange because I don't know why I was given away. I was raised in Harlem by Herbert and his wife, Florence. Herbert was African American. Florence was German and Native American and wonderful and loved me very much. As a child my life centered around the neighborhood and the church. The neighborhood protected me and the church guided me. I resisted as much as I could. I was smart (all kids are smart) but didn't do that well in school. I dropped out of high school (although now Stuyvesant High claims me as a graduate) and joined the army on my 17th birthday. Basketball has always been a passion of mine. Sometimes at night I lie in bed thinking about games I've played. Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I had gone into the NBA (I was never good enough) or college ball. Anyway.... I wrote well in high school and a teacher (bless her!) recognized this and also knew I was going to drop out. She advised me to keep on writing no matter what happened to me. "It's what you do," she said. I didn't know exactly what that meant but, years later, working on a construction job in New York, I remembered her words. I began writing at night and eventually began writing about the most difficult period of my own life, the teen years. That's what I do. >> Download a full-size photo of Walter Dean Myers		Walter at 11 Walter and his brother Mickey grew up in Harlem Christopher would one day illustrate books for his father.

__________________________

Bibliography

		Dope Sick  New York, HarperCollins, 2009 Amiri & Odette  New York, Scholastic, 2009  Ida B. Wells, Let the Truth Be Told  Illustrated by Bonnie Christensen  New York, HarperCollins, 2008 Sunrise Over Fallujah  New York, Scholastic, 2008 Game  New York, HarperCollins, 2008 What They Found  New York, Random House, 2007 Harlem Summer  New York, Scholastic, 2007 Street Love  New York, HarperCollins,  2006 Jazz   Illustrated by Christopher Myers.  New York, Holiday House,  2006 The Hellfighters: When Pride Met Courage  New York, HarperCollins, 2006 Autobiography of My Dead Brother   Illustrated by Christopher Myers New York, HarperCollins, 2005 Here In Harlem: Poems in Many Voices  New York, Holiday House, 2004 Antarctica  New York, Scholastic, 2004 Constellation  New York, Holiday House, 2004 I’ve Seen the Promised Land; Martin Luther King  Illustrated by Leonard Jenkins New York, HarperCollins, 2004 Shooter New York, HarperCollins, 2004 The Beast New York, Scholastic, 2003 The Dream Bearer  New York, HarperCollins, 2003  Blues Journey   Illustrated by Christopher Myers New York, Holiday House, 2003 A Time to Love: Stories from the Old Testament  Illustrated by Chris Myers New York, Scholastic, 2003 Handbook for Boys: A Novel  New York, HarperCollins 2002 Three Swords for Granada  New York, Holiday House 2002 Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam   Illustrated by Ann Grafalconi New York, Harper Collins 2002 The Journal of Biddy Owens: The Negro Leagues, 1948  (My Name Is America series) New York, Scholastic, 2001 Bad Boy: A Memoir  New York, HarperCollins 2001 The Greatest: The Life of Muhammad Ali New York, Scholastic  2000 145th Street: Short Stories  New York, Delacorte, 2000 The Blues of Flats Brown   Illustrated by Nina Laden New York, Holiday House 2000 Malcolm X: A Fire Burning Brightly  Illustrated by Leonard Jenkins New York, HarperCollins, 2000 Monster  New York, HarperCollins, 1999 The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy, Chisholm Trail, 1871.  (My Name Is America series) New York, Scholastic 1999 The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: World War II, Normandy, France  (My Name Is America series)   New York, Scholastic, 1999 At Her Majesty’s Request.   New York: Scholastic, 1999 Slam!   New York: Scholastic, 1998 Angel to Angel.   New York: HarperCollins, 1998 Amistad; A Long Road to Freedom   New York: Dutton, 1997 Harlem    Illustrated by Christopher Myers  New York: Scholastic, 1997 Toussaint L’overtoure: The Fight for Haiti’s Freedom  Illustrations by Jacob Lawrence   New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996 How Mr. Monkey Saw the Whole World  Illustrated by Synthia Saint James New York: Doubleday, 1996.  One More River to Cross:  An African American Photograph Album   New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996. Smiffy Blue:  Ace Crime Detective: Case of the Missing Ruby and Other Stories    New York: Scholastic, 1996. The Dragon Takes a Wife   Illustrated by Fiona French New York;  Scholastic, 1995. Glorious Angels:  An Album of Pictures and Verse    New York:  HarperCollins, 1995. The Shadow of the Red Moon   Illustrated by Christopher Myers New York:  Scholastic, 1995.  The Story of the Three Kingdoms   Illustrated by Ashley Bryan New York:  HarperCollins, 1995. Darnell Rock Reporting    New York: Delacorte Press, 1994 The Glory Field    New York:  Scholastic, 1994 Brown Angels:  An Album of Pictures and Verse    New York:  HarperCollins, 1993 Young Martin's Promise    Austin, TX:  Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1993.  A Place Called Heartbreak:  A Story of Vietnam    Austin, TX:  Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1993 18 Pine Street Series (12 Books) Sort of Sisters (Writing as Stacie Johnson) New York, Delacorte 1993 The Party  (Writing as Stacie Johnson) New York, Delacorte 1993 The Prince (Writing as Stacie Johnson) New York, Delacorte 1993 Malcolm X:  By Any Means Necessary    New York: Scholastic, 1993 The Righteous Revenge of Artemis Bonner   New York: HarperCollins, 1992 Mop, Moondance, and the Nagasaki Knights    New York: Delacorte, 1992. Somewhere in the Darkness    New York: Scholastic, 1992. Now is Your Time! The African-American Struggle for Freedom    New York: HarperCollins, 1991.  The Mouse Rap    New York: HarperCollins, 1990. Fallen Angels    New York: Scholastic, 1988. Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid   New York: Delacorte, 1988. Scorpions   New York:   Harper & Row, 1988. Crystal   New York: Viking 1987. Sweet Illusions    New York Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1986. Ambush in the Amazon  (Arrow Series)  New York: Viking, 1986.  Duel in the Desert  (Arrow Series)  New York: Viking, 1986. The Hidden Shrine (Arrow Series) New York: Viking, 1985. Adventure in Granada (Arrow Series).    New York: Viking, 1985. The Outside Sho    New York: Delacorte, 1984 Motown and Didi: A Love Story    New York: Viking, 1984. Mr. Monkey and the Gotcha Bird   Illustrated by Leslie Morrill.  New York: Delacorte, 1984.  Tales of a Dead King    New York: Morrow, 1983. The Nicholas Factor     New York: Viking, 1983 Won't Know Till I Get There    New York: Viking, 1982. The Legend of Tarik    New York: Viking, 1981 Hoops    New York: Delacorte, 1981.  The Golden Serpent    Illustrated. by Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen.   New York: Viking 1980 The Black Pearl and the Ghost; or, One Mystery after Another    Illustrated by Robert Quackenbush.  New York: Viking, 1980. The Young Landlords   New York: Viking, 1979 It Ain't All for Nothin'    New York: Viking, 1978. Victory for Jamie    New York: Scholastic, 1977. Mojo and the Russians    New York:  Viking, 1977.  Brainstorm    Illustrated with photographs by Chuck Freedman.  New York: Franklin Watts, 1977. Social Welfare    New York: Franklin Watts, 1976. Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff    New York: Viking, 1975. The World of Work:  A Guide to Choosing a Career    Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1975 Fly, Jimmy, Fly!    Illustrated by Moneta Barnett.  New York: Putnam, 1974. The Dancers   Illustrated by Anne Rockwell.  New York:  Parents Magazine Press, 1972. The Dragon Takes a Wife   Illustrated by Ann Grifalconi.   Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972. Where Does the Day Go?   Illustrated by Leo Carty.  New York: Parents Magazine Press, 1969.