Jason Reynolds studied English at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 2005.

School and college path

  • Jason Reynolds grew up in Oxon Hill, Maryland, attending local public schools, where he was deeply into poetry even though he struggled in some English classes.
  • After high school, he went on to the University of Maryland, College Park, focusing on poetry and literature and eventually completing a bachelor’s degree in English.

Key education details

  • During college, he worked at Karibu Books, a bookstore centered on African and African American literature, which exposed him to writers like Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison and reshaped his sense of what books could be.
  • Although he later applied to graduate programs, sources note that he was not admitted because of his undergraduate grades, and instead he moved into full-time writing while working retail jobs in New York.

Education and later career

  • His education in English and immersion in Black literature fed directly into his young adult and middle‑grade books, which often center Black communities and use voice and rhythm drawn from poetry and rap.
  • Reynolds now also teaches in higher education settings, serving on the faculty of Lesley University’s Writing for Young People MFA program, which keeps his work closely tied to education and mentoring emerging writers.

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