J. Patrick Lewis (born May 5, 1942) is an American poet and prose writer noted for his children's poems and other light verse.
[1] He worked as professor of economics from 1974 to 1998, after which he devoted himself full-time to writing.
Lewis has received the 2013 Claudia Lewis Award,[2] the 2014 Cybils Award for Poetry,[3] the Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text (2002),[4] the Ohioana Book Award for Poetry for Young Children (2015),[5] and others.
He was the recipient of the 2010–11 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Excellence in Children's Poetry Award, presented every two years.
He also served from 2011 to 2013 as the third U.S. Children's Poet Laureate (now called the Young People's Poet Laureate).