Skip to main content

Renée Watson

Biography

Renée Watson

Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Over the past decade she has authored 15 young adult books, which have collectively sold more than a million copies. She received a Coretta Scott King Award and a Newbery Honor for PIECING ME TOGETHER and high praise for THE 1619 PROJECT: Born on the Water. Watson is on the Council of Writers for the National Writing Project and is a member of the Academy of American Poets’ Education Advisory Council. She is also a writer-in-residence at The Solstice Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing Program. Renée splits her time between New York City and Portland, Oregon.

Books by Renée Watson

skin & bones
by Renée Watson - Fiction, Women's Fiction

With her wedding weeks away, Lena Baker feels excited for the next chapter. She’s built a steady life in Portland, and between wine nights with her two best friends, a loving relationship, and a rewarding job, she’s happy --- until a devastating confession from her fiancé on their wedding day shakes her world. Unmoored and grieving, Lena questions everything she thought she knew about love, friendship and motherhood. In this stirring exploration of who society makes room for, one mother resolves to teach her daughter self-love even as she herself struggles with it --- and learns how to shine her bold, brilliant light in a world that wants to dim it.

Betty Before X
by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson - Children's, Children's 10-14, Fiction, Historical Fiction
A Place Where Hurricanes Happen
written by Renée Watson, illustrated by Shadra Strickland - Children's, Picture
Harlem's Little Blackbird
written by Renée Watson, illustrated by Christian Robinson - Children's, Children's Nonfiction, Nonfiction