Nikki Grimes author page

Nikki Grimes biography

Nikki Grimes is a poet, journalist and author of children’s and young adult books. She was born in Harlem in 1950, gave her first poetry reading at the Countee Cullen Library when she was 13, and began publishing poetry as a teenager. She studied at Rutgers University and earned a BA in English and African languages.

Her books for young readers include Bronx Masquerade, Garvey’s Choice, Poems in the Attic and Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. Her verse memoir Ordinary Hazards was released in 2019 by Wordsong.

Bronx Masquerade won the 2003 Coretta Scott King Award. Grimes received the 2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, the 2016 Virginia Hamilton Literary Award and the 2017 Wilder Medal, now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award.

Her Coretta Scott King Honor books include Meet Danitra Brown, Jazmin’s Notebook, Talkin’ About Bessie, Dark Sons, The Road to Paris and Words with Wings. Words with Wings received a Coretta Scott King Honor in 2014.

Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance was published by Bloomsbury on 5 January 2021. In that poetry collection, Grimes pairs poems by women poets of the Harlem Renaissance with new poems of her own inspired by their lines.