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'Watch Us Rise' author Renée Watson

On this episode of the Why We Write podcast, New York Times bestselling author, educator, and activist Renée Watson talks about her latest novel for teens and writing strong, black, female characters.

Listen to the podcast

Find the full transcript at the end of this page.

Episode notes

Renée Watson is a New York Times bestselling author, educator, and activist whose latest novel for teens is Watch Us Rise, co-written with Ellen Hagan. A native of Portland, Oregon, Renée writes books for kids and teens that reflect the diversity she often found missing in books when she was a child. She recently won the Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbury Honor for Piecing Me Together. Renée is also a community advocate and the founder of the I, Too, Arts Collective, based in the home of Langston Hughes.

Renée is joined by fellow author and Lesley University faculty Tracey Baptiste.

Learn more about Renée, her books, and upcoming events on her homepage(link is external).

Check out all of our episodes on our podcast page or just go ahead and subscribe on Apple Podcasts(link is external), Stitcher(link is external), Google Podcasts(link is external) or Spotify(link is external).