Grimes, Nikki (1950-…), is an African American poet and author of books for children and young adults. She is also a journalist. Grimes often draws upon her own childhood to convey the African American experience and to explore such themes as family and community relationships, friendship, adolescence, and tolerance. Many of her books are written in verse, introducing younger readers to the expressive power of poetry.
Grimes won the 2003 Coretta Scott King Author Award for Bronx Masquerade (2002). The book tells the story of a class of high school students in the Bronx borough (district) of New York City who get to know and understand each other by participating in poetry sessions hosted by their teacher. Grimes later wrote a sequel to the novel, Between the Lines (2018). The Coretta Scott King Author Award annually honors African American authors and illustrators of outstanding books that portray the Black experience for young readers. Grimes received the Children’s Literature Legacy Award in 2017. The award honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made an important contribution to literature for children. In 2022, she received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Grimes was born on Oct. 20, 1950, in the Harlem borough of New York City. Her parents separated and reunited a number of times, and Grimes and her sister often lived with relatives and in foster homes. Grimes began writing while living with a foster family in Ossining, New York. She was later reunited with her mother and sister in New York City. In 1974, Grimes graduated from Livingston College of Rutgers University in New Jersey with a B.A. degree in English. She also studied African languages. After graduation, Grimes was awarded a grant from the Ford Foundation to further her language studies in Tanzania. Her year there led to her writing the book Is It Far to Zanzibar?: Poems about Tanzania (2000).
Grimes’s first book was Growin’ (illustrated by Charles Lilly, 1977). It focuses on the friendship of a fifth-grade girl with a boy who once bullied her at school. In 1978, Grimes’s first book of children’s poems, Something on My Mind, illustrated by Tom Feelings, was released. It is a collection of prose poems that express the fears, hopes, joys, and sorrows of growing up. Also in 1978, Grimes moved to Sweden where she worked in radio and as a translator. In 1984, she returned to the United States, where she continued her work as a writer.
Grimes’s other books include Jazmin’s Notebook (1998); What Is Goodbye? (illustrated by Raúl Colón, 2004); Dark Sons (2005); The Road to Paris (2006); Words with Wings (2013); Garvey’s Choice (2016); and Garvey in the Dark (2022). Her picture books include Come Sunday (illustrated by Michael Bryant, 1996); A Pocketful of Poems (illustrated by Javaka Steptoe, 2001); Bedtime for Sweet Creatures (illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, 2020); and Southwest Sunrise (illustrated by Wendell Minor, 2020). She also wrote the picture-book biographies Talkin’ About Bessie (illustrated by E. B. Lewis, 2002), about the African American aviator Bessie Coleman; and Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope (illustrated by Bryan Collier, 2008), about U.S. President Barack Obama.
Grimes wrote the poetry collections From a Child’s Heart (illustrated by Brenda Joysmith, 1993); It’s Raining Laughter (with photographs by Myles C. Pinkney, 1997); A Dime a Dozen (illustrated by Angelo, 1998); and Under the Christmas Tree (illustrated by Kadir Nelson, 2002). Ordinary Hazards (2019) is a memoir written as a collection of poetry. Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance (2021) pairs poems by Grimes with poems by women of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The book is illustrated by female African American artists of today.
Grimes is the author of two series. The “Danitra Brown” series, which began with Meet Danitra Brown (illustrated by Floyd Cooper, 1994), is written in verse text from the point of view of a girl about her close relationship with her friend. The “Dyamonde Daniel” series, which began with Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel (illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, 2009), is about an outspoken third-grade girl who moves to a new neighborhood after her parents divorce.
