A glimpse of Jacqueline Woodson Final

A glimpse of Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus Ohio on February 12th, 1963. She spent her childhood in Greenville, South Carolina. When it came to her moving experience she ended up leaving her childhood area. She moved to Brooklyn New York when she was seven years old with her mother. (3) Later on her mother sadly passed away late in the summer of 2009. (2) This left the writer to have to sort out what to do with the Brooklyn building where they had been living for quite some time. To talk more about the topic of her mother, Jacqueline went through a lot of stress after her passing as well as heartbreak. The childhood home was described as a three story townhouse in the Bushwick neighborhood. When her mother was no longer with them a rapid increase in the development was occurring as the prices were going up and more families had to leave because of it. This created a sense of emotion for Woodson as she had to let go of her childhood home due to the amount of expenses being held onto the home.(2)

Moving onto a positive piece of Woodson and her life. She had a great experience throughout her education where she graduated from Adelphi University in New York in the year of 1985. She left with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English. Continuing on her education she went on to study creative writing at the News School for social research. Which is now called New School University. (3)

 Woodson is an American author who wrote more than 40 books for adults, young adults, and children that focus on African American experiences. In 2018 Woodson was named National Ambassador for Young People's literature for the year of 2018-2019. (2) This was one of her biggest achievements as a writer throughout her career. It has brought so much attention to her name and given her even better opportunities as her fans begin to expand.  

Brown Girl Dreaming won the John Newbury Medal in 2015 on April 15th. Jacqueline's lyrical memoir chronicles the incidents and emotions she experienced as an African American girl growing up in the 1960's and 1970's. Her elegant poems weave a story about her development from a struggling reader and dreamer into a confident young woman and writer. (4) One of the most unique factors about her is that she is very open about her true self. She explains that she struggled with reading as a child but she found strength in her writing. The concept of her novel Brown Girl Dreaming is to bring out the importance of storytelling and the power that a person's words hold. The idea of having a "voice" is an extreme significance to her life and the information she brings out in her novels. 

Family History

Jacqueline later on learned to find out a lot of important family history that she was not aware of at the time of being a younger age. Which included finding out her family was a part of the great migration, her great great grandfather had fought in the Civil War, along with the heartfelt connection to the meaning behind her grandparents names which were "Hope" and "Grace". (5) As Woodson began to grow older and develop as a writer she started to put all of these important factors together that created such a beautiful connection to create her novel behind the name of Brown Girl Dreaming. 

"Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen." (Brown Girl Dreaming)

I am very intrigued by this woman and not just by the type of writer she is but who she is as a person. She has a strong passion for the place we live in and the people we are surrounded by. She is in love with the idea of honesty as well as creating a better world which is what makes her who she is today.

Other books she created for children include picture books. Two of those include The Day You Begin as well as The Year We Learned To Fly were New York Times Best Sellers. She goes through tough issues head on that she feels younger children should know about. These topics consist of race relations, foster, care, and incarceration. Woodson does really well with talking about identity and preparing the younger generations for the world they are going to grow up in. 

Woodson is now currently living in Park Slope Brooklyn with her partner Juliet Widoff, a physician. The couple has two children, a daughter and a son.

Reflection

After taking the time to learn about Jacqueline as an author and as the person she is. I am definitely much more invested in learning about authors specifically that I have not been familiar with before. When she speaks I feel like she is someone I could feel comfortable around as she excels in her communication. I really enjoyed hearing about her life story and what brought her to become a writer. I thought it was really influential of her to share out to the world that she has always struggled with reading and understanding. One of my most memorable moments from my research of Jacqueline Woodson includes how after she completed her education at Adelphi University she worked for a program helping homeless and runaway children. This woman shows her true passion for how much she loves to help others. Her story is what has impacted her so much today. She makes others feel comfortable in their own skin and she is a person that I want to listen to. As I continue on to read about her achievements and the highlights of Brown Girl Dreaming I am highly considering finding the book and reading it because I am really invested in all of the research I have found about Jacqueline Woodson!

Works Cited 

(1) “Jacqueline Woodson.” Jacquelinewoodson.Com, jacquelinewoodson.com/video/#:~:text=Jacqueline%20Woodson%20is%20an%20American,%2C%20Feathers%2C%20and%20Show%20Way. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.

  

(2) Chow, Kat. “Jacqueline Woodson Transformed Children’s Literature. Now She’s Writing for Herself.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/magazine/jacqueline-woodson-red-at-the-bone.html. 

(3) “Jacqueline Woodson.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 8 Feb. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Jacqueline-Woodson.

(4) "Brown Girl Dreaming." Brown Girl Dreaming, American Library Association, 12 Feb. 2024,  www.ala.org/awardsgrants/brown-girl-dreaming-1 

(5) "What reading slowly taught me about writing." Jacqueline Woodson TED Talk, 8 Oct. 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzAtOyw6ACw