Renée Watson (born July 29, 1978) is an American teaching artist and author of children's books, best known for her award-winning and New York Times bestselling young adult novel Piecing Me Together,[1] for which she received the John Newbery Honor, Coretta Scott King Author Award, and Bank Street Children's Book Committee's Josette Frank Award for fiction.

[6] She loved poetry from a young age and read the work of poets like Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes.

[7] When she first read poems by Hughes in elementary school, Watson felt a strong connection to them and sense of herself, her family, and her neighbors reflected in his work.

[13] Additionally, Watson has run poetry and theater workshops that aim to help children deal with traumas from various sources (such as natural disasters and sexual assault).

[14] Likewise, Watson was a Writer in residence at the Schools and Self Enhancement Inc, a Portland-based nonprofit organization that works with underprivileged youth in the North-Portland area.

[17] Watson's second picture book, Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills, was published October 23, 2012, and received multiple awards and nominations.

[4] Watson performed "Roses are Red Women are Blue," a one-woman show, at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

The board of the nonprofit decided that Hughes' former brownstone should not be turned into a museum, but should be a creative space for the Harlem community.

Since opening the space to the public in 2017, the collective provides creative arts programs such as poetry workshops and drum classes for children and adults.

[25] It tells the story of Jade, a poor African-American teenager at a predominantly white Portland, Oregon high school who struggles with the prejudice of the people surrounding her.

[29] Watson's relationships with the black women she knew growing up and a 2014 NAACP report exploring struggles exclusive to African-American girls inspired her to write this novel.

[31] Watson's third young adult novel, Watch Us Rise, about two best friends who start a women's rights club in their high school, was published by Bloomsbury in 2019.

[1] In 2021, Barnes & Noble and Publishers Weekly included The 1619 Project on their lists of the best picture books of the year.