Library of Congress. National Book Festival (U.S.), sponsoring body. moving image eng Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan discussed "Watch Us Rise" at the 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Renée Watson, Ellen Hagan. Recorded on 2019-08-31. Renée Watson is the New York Times best-selling author of "Piecing Me Together," "This Side of Home," "What Momma Left Me" and "Betty Before X" (co-written with Ilyasah Shabazz). Watson also has two acclaimed picture books: "A Place Where Hurricanes Happen" and "Harlem's Little Blackbird," which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. She is the founder of the I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit committed to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts. Her new book (with Ellen Hagan) is "Watch Us Rise," which has won both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award. Ellen Hagan is a writer, performer and educator. Her poetry collections include "Hemisphere" and "Crowned." Her work can be found in ESPN Magazine and the anthologies "She Walks in Beauty" and "Southern Sin." Hagan is the director of the Poetry and Theater departments at the DreamYard Project and directs its International Poetry Exchange Program with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. She co-leads the Alice Hoffman Young Writers Retreat at Adelphi University. Hagan's new book, (with Renée Watson), is "Watch Us Rise." The book has won a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Award. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gdcwebcasts.190831lib0900_teen_watsonhagan