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WORK TITLE: How James Baldwin Became a Writer
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BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.quartezharris.com/
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COUNTRY: United States
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PERSONAL
Married; child: son.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Teacher and writer. Cleveland Public Schools, second grade teacher, 2016-21; teaches poetry workshops and creative writing.
AWARDS:Baldwin House Fellow, 2020; Poet of the Year, Ohio Poetry Association, 2021.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, November, 2024, John Peters, review of Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, p. 60.
Horn Book Magazine, March-April, 2025, Monique Harris, review of Go Tell It, p. 96.
ONLINE
Authors Unbound, https://authorsunbound.com/ (January 7, 2025), Carrie Wise, author interview; June 6, 2025, author profile.
Ideastream, https://www.ideastream.org/ (January 7, 2025), Carrie Wise, author interview.
Literary Cleveland, https://www.litcleveland.org/ (June 6, 2025), author bio.
Quartez Harris website, http://www.quartezharris.com (June 6, 2025).
Signal Cleveland, https://signalcleveland.org/ (February 16, 2024), Stephanie Casanova, author interview.
A bit about Q
Quartez Harris is a poet and teaching artist. His newest book is Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer (January 2025), is a USA Today Bestseller and serves as an ode to the childhood of American icon James Baldwin and the power of storytelling, illustrated by Caldecott and Loretta Scott King Honoree Gordon C. James. Harris is a Baldwin House fellow and named Ohio Poet of the Year for his book We Made It to School Alive, and his poetry has garnered numerous accolades. He spent many years as a second grade teacher in the Cleveland public school system, and currently spends his time writing and teaching poetry workshops.
Quartez Harris is the Ohio Poetry Association's 2021 Poet of the Year. Harris' first book, Nothing, But Skin, was published in 2014 by Writing Knights Press. He is the first recipient of the Barbara Smith Writer-In-Resident at Twelve Literary Arts and a 2020 Baldwin House Fellow. He is represented by Mckinnon Literary Agency and has been featured in the Plain Dealer, IdeaStream, and a talk for the City Club of Cleveland. His works in progress are a picture book biography and young-adult novel. Learn more at quartezharris.com. His second poetry volume is the much celebrated We Made It to School Alive.
Quartez
Harris
Poet of the Year
Bestselling Children’s Author
Travels from: Cleveland, OH
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“In descriptive and poetic language, this book reveals how reading and writing were powerful motivators for young James Baldwin. … This book is especially recommended because it not only explains the growth of a successful writer, but it also can stimulate discussions of the ways in which reading and writing enrich our lives.” — School Library Journal, starred review
Quartez Harris is a poet and teaching artist. He was awarded the Baldwin House Fellowship and named Ohio Association’s Poet of the Year for his book, We Made It to School Alive.
His poetry has received numerous accolades. Harris spent many years as a second-grade teacher in the Cleveland public school system and currently dedicates his time to living within books, writing, and running poetry workshops. He exemplifies the transformative power of literature. His inspiring literary works and passionate advocacy for education and personal growth stem from his own experiences. As a student, Harris struggled with reading and writing, but the support from his IEP teacher, Mr. Moore, along with his aunt’s love for language, played a crucial role in fostering his love for words.
His newest book is Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer (January 2025), is a USA Today Bestseller and serves as an ode to the childhood of American icon James Baldwin and the power of storytelling, illustrated by Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honoree Gordon C. James.
Quartez Harris Publishes First Children’s Book On James Baldwin
Originally Published by Ideastream Public Media
Written by Carrie Wise
January 7, 2025
“Go Tell It” opens with a metaphor comparing James Baldwin’s love for books to glitter.
It’s symbolic both of the celebrated writer’s persona as well as the sticky substance often used in school crafts, according to author Quartez Harris.
“I always think about how when I was a kid, I could never get glitter off of me, and I really felt like Baldwin couldn’t get words off of him,” Harris said.
The Cleveland writer and educator champions the power of literature in his first children’s book, which tells the story of James Baldwin’s early years growing up in Harlem with an insatiable passion for books.
“Go Tell It,” published Tuesday, is the first of three books Harris is writing for Little, Brown and Company. He celebrates with a public book launch for “Go Tell It” at ThirdSpace Reading Room in Cleveland on Sunday, with an author talk at 2 p.m. and children’s story time at 4 p.m.
Baldwin as a role model
From Harris’ several years working as an elementary school teacher in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, he said he knew there was a need for a picture book biography on Baldwin.
“Had I known Baldwin early on in my childhood, he would have been my literary hero,” he said.
Reflecting upon his own formative years, Harris said he wasn’t encouraged to read and didn’t think books were for him.
“Watching the sort of the transformational power of books in Baldwin’s life sort of affirms how if young people are encouraged to read, their lives will be powerful, their lives will change for the better,” Harris said.
“Go Tell It” details how Baldwin found refuge growing up in Harlem at the library, away from the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings and the expectations of his stepfather, a preacher focused only on one book — the Bible. It also shows how Baldwin developed his own voice, writing about civil rights, Black life in America and the queer experience.
“I believe when kids read about James Baldwin, they will discover what can be done with words, what to do with those words and how to use them poetically, powerfully, purposefully,” Harris said. “Baldwin used his words to make people better, to make this world better, more honest, more loving.”
With illustrations in oil by Gordon C. James, who has his own family ties to Harlem, the book pays tribute to the legacy of Baldwin — a century after he was born.
“He describes himself as reading virtually every book he could get his fingers on. I think that also speaks to the transformational power of not only books, but sort of like the library as a hub,” Harris said.
Harris’ writing evolution
In 2020, Harris published his first book of poetry inspired by his students, “We Made It to School Alive,” which he credits for leading him to his current three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.
His next books will further pay homage to his students as well as his own education experiences while in middle school, when he was separated from his peers due to challenges with reading and writing comprehension.
“I certainly experienced a lot of stigmatism, feeling left out, feeling like I was in a glass box, feeling like I couldn’t interact with the general population,” he said. “That was a very difficult time.”
A forthcoming novel explores what is it like for a student to navigate that. Another picture book on the horizon is a work of fiction inspired by his former second grade classroom.
While he no longer teaches full time, he is still helping young people with the written word teaching two classes a day at the Cleveland School for the Arts and working with high school students in the creative writing department.
“It really is so self-fulfilling,” he said. “I get to also help young people fulfill their literary goals.”
Quartez Harris
Author, Educator
@QuartezHarris1
Quartez Harris is a poet and teaching artist and was a second-grade teacher for six years. Harris is a Baldwin House fellow and named The Ohio Poetry Association’s Poet of the Year for his book We Made It to School Alive, and his poetry has garnered numerous accolades. His newest book Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer (January 2025), is a USA Today Bestseller and serves as an ode to the childhood of American icon James Baldwin and the power of storytelling, illustrated by Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honoree Gordon C. James. As the Writer-in-Resident at Cleveland School of the Arts, Quartez continues to support future generations by providing creative writing instruction to talented poets and writers, reflecting a commitment to ensuring that talented young poets and writers have access to high-quality literature and develop their love for reading and writing.
TOPICS: Writing, Education, Race
‘An uncomfortable book to write’: Cleveland teacher turned writer reflects on his work
Quartez Harris will read poems from a re-release of his book, ‘We Made It to School Alive’, this Sunday at Loganberry Books.
Stephanie Casanova, Criminal Justice Reporter
by Stephanie Casanova
February 16, 2024
Quartez Harris is photographed at his writing studio in Lakewood on Feb. 15, 2024. He is leaning against a windowsill, arms folded, smiling.
Quartez Harris is photographed at his writing studio in Lakewood on Feb. 15, 2024. Credit: Photo courtesy of Kortney Morrow
Quartez Harris wants people who read his book, We Made It to School Alive, to walk away hopeful for a brighter future for Cleveland’s children and schools.
This book of poems, published in 2020, was his way of reflecting on his six years as a second-grade teacher in Cleveland. The stories are drawn from real experiences and conversations he had with students and parents, he said. They illustrate the conditions he saw in urban schools.
“I absolutely felt like this is my way of writing their humanity into the world,” Harris said. “And ultimately, I just wanted people to be sensitive to the plight that they were living through.”
Harris taught second grade from 2016 to 2021. Five of those years were with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, at a school in Glenville.
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He was named 2021 Poet of the Year by the Ohio Poetry Association.
Harris will be at Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere Blvd. in Shaker Heights) on Sunday to read some new poems from the book, promote a re-release and talk about his work as part of the Rebel Readers’ February book discussion.
Signal Cleveland met with Harris to talk about We Made It to School Alive, and about his teaching and writing career in Cleveland. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Why did you write this book?
I was appalled by how old the school building was. That it lacked central air, that it didn’t feel brand new, it didn’t feel modern. It felt dilapidated. So I was very sensitive about the conditions of the school.
It started through that concern, but also all the environmental concerns. I mean, I was in Glenville, so I’m thinking about how my kids come from poverty-stricken economic backgrounds. I’m thinking through the gun violence that is really born out of poverty. I think about all these non-academic barriers that are impacting my kids before they come to school and how it also translates into their day-to-day school activity. So I was just thinking about all the things that kids go through to get to school and what they have to return to. [Writing] was my way to just sort of unravel and think through and study my feelings.
Why did you choose this title?
There was a student who came to me after school, and he said, “Mr. Harris, can you call my mom to have her pick me up?”
And I said, “Yes, that’s fine. But you generally walk home.”
He said, “I do. But I always hear gunshots.”
That was the early essence of this book. I felt like, all right, there’s this kid who I personally felt was fearless, and he seems just unconcerned throughout our school day, but now he’s vulnerable. And at that point, I’m like, wow, this is a concern you have at eight years old?
A lot of these poems are really just poems that young people, parents had their concerns or stories they confided in me.
Like the poem “Parent Teacher Conference,” there’s a line that says, “I would have carried a pistol for this conference, but the school seems cool.” A parent actually said that. Why would he feel the sense that he needed to protect himself in that way in a school environment?
It certainly was an uncomfortable book to write. And reading it is still unnerving and still uncomfortable because these are realities that have been reflected through my poems. But that doesn’t make it any easier to read them. It’s sad to me that I feel the need to write them.
Quartez Harris leans against a windowsill posing for a photo at his writing studio in Lakewood on Feb. 15, 2024.
Quartez Harris, a former Cleveland teacher, leans against a windowsill posing for a photo at his writing studio in Lakewood on Feb. 15, 2024. Harris will read poems from his book We Made It to School Alive on Sunday at Loganberry Books. Credit: Photo courtesy of Kortney Morrow
The book seems to have a deeper theme of violence and survival. Can you talk about that?
There are poems, such as a poem where I talk about the parent who basically says: we don’t have much but we have a three-bedroom apartment with books as amenities. Like literature being a form of survival.
Then there’s a kid hopping through chalk outlines, which is the contrast of, yes, this world is terrifying, but it absolutely can also be beautiful.
So there’s this throughline of hopefulness.
I have a poem where I describe a parent who is trying to imagine his child in this new school system that he dropped out of. And he’s hoping that [his child] doesn’t have to face the things he faced. That he can actually graduate. That he can actually see beyond the school building, see beyond the conditions of schools. He can swim in Lake Erie.
So, there is definitely a sense of survival as a mode of just trying to invent a world that may not necessarily be present, but certainly a world that can be imagined.
That’s why I use a lot of magical realism. Just sort of this magic that we create through our hopefulness. Like, kids, they swim through a canal of stars. A Hula Hoop circles the projects. Kids jump into bean bags as if they are plastic pools. There’s still this sense of sparkle of joy.
Why did you leave teaching? And what’s next for you?
I didn’t want to leave teaching. At the time, my literary agent said, “You redirect the paths of young people every day in the classroom, but I certainly think it’s time to do it through books.” And to my surprise, I was offered a major book deal. So I felt that I owed it to myself to give myself the attention that my writing deserves. So I stepped away, truthfully to just focus on my projects that are forthcoming.
These books certainly are dear to me, and I can’t wait until my publisher reveals what I’ve been up to. And then we could talk more about that when Publishers Weekly makes an announcement.
The first book is going to highlight incidents of racial conflict. The second book will absolutely work around themes that have to do with students in school. The [third] book is still being written.
What should people look forward to at Sunday’s event?
I think they should look forward to vulnerability. I mean, these are hard themes, and they’re real themes. I also think people should look for a sense of possibilities. The themes in my book are very hard, but I feel like, if anything, they write awareness into the world. I think people can look forward to dreaming of more possibilities for kids who are in public schools.
Cleveland educator Quartez Harris pens first children’s book on James Baldwin
Ideastream Public Media | By Carrie Wise
Published January 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM EST
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Book cover of "Go Tell It" and author headshot of Quartez Harris
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Cleveland writer Quartez Harris (right) wrote "Go Tell It" with illustrations by Gordon C. James. The book details James Baldwin's early years in Harlem and his love for reading.
“Go Tell It” opens with a metaphor comparing James Baldwin’s love for books to glitter.
It’s symbolic both of the celebrated writer’s persona as well as the sticky substance often used in school crafts, according to author Quartez Harris.
“I always think about how when I was a kid, I could never get glitter off of me, and I really felt like Baldwin couldn’t get words off of him,” Harris said.
The Cleveland writer and educator champions the power of literature in his first children’s book, which tells the story of James Baldwin’s early years growing up in Harlem with an insatiable passion for books.
“Go Tell It," published Tuesday, is the first of three books Harris is writing for Little, Brown and Company. He celebrates with a public book launch for “Go Tell It” at ThirdSpace Reading Room in Cleveland on Sunday, with an author talk at 2 p.m. and children’s story time at 4 p.m.
Baldwin as a role model
From Harris’ several years working as an elementary school teacher in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, he said he knew there was a need for a picture book biography on Baldwin.
“Had I known Baldwin early on in my childhood, he would have been my literary hero,” he said.
Reflecting upon his own formative years, Harris said he wasn’t encouraged to read and didn’t think books were for him.
“Watching the sort of the transformational power of books in Baldwin's life sort of affirms how if young people are encouraged to read, their lives will be powerful, their lives will change for the better,” Harris said.
“Go Tell It” details how Baldwin found refuge growing up in Harlem at the library, away from the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings and the expectations of his stepfather, a preacher focused only on one book — the Bible. It also shows how Baldwin developed his own voice, writing about civil rights, Black life in America and the queer experience.
“I believe when kids read about James Baldwin, they will discover what can be done with words, what to do with those words and how to use them poetically, powerfully, purposefully,” Harris said. “Baldwin used his words to make people better, to make this world better, more honest, more loving.”
With illustrations in oil by Gordon C. James, who has his own family ties to Harlem, the book pays tribute to the legacy of Baldwin — a century after he was born.
“He describes himself as reading virtually every book he could get his fingers on. I think that also speaks to the transformational power of not only books, but sort of like the library as a hub,” Harris said.
Harris’ writing evolution
In 2020, Harris published his first book of poetry inspired by his students, “We Made It to School Alive,” which he credits for leading him to his current three-book deal with Little, Brown and Company.
His next books will further pay homage to his students as well as his own education experiences while in middle school, when he was separated from his peers due to challenges with reading and writing comprehension.
“I certainly experienced a lot of stigmatism, feeling left out, feeling like I was in a glass box, feeling like I couldn't interact with the general population,” he said. “That was a very difficult time.”
A forthcoming novel explores what is it like for a student to navigate that. Another picture book on the horizon is a work of fiction inspired by his former second grade classroom.
While he no longer teaches full time, he is still helping young people with the written word teaching two classes a day at the Cleveland School for the Arts and working with high school students in the creative writing department.
“It really is so self-fulfilling,” he said. “I get to also help young people fulfill their literary goals.”
Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became
a Writer.
By Quartez Harris. Illus. by Gordon C. James.
Jan. 2025. 40p. Little, Brown, $18.99 (9780316483933).
Gr. 1-3. 818.5409.
Joining the rush of commemorations on the centennial of James Baldwin's birth, this picture-book profile offers rich language and visuals in a perceptive account of how the bookish lad absorbed and responded to his Harlem community and often-difficult family life. It follows him to the physical and metaphorical mountaintop in France, where a "hymn born out of the words he'd nurtured his whole life" becomes the brilliant debut novel referenced in the title. Some of those words float through James' atmospheric oil-on-board scenes of the dark-skinned young man on the street, in libraries, shrinking away from his angry stepfather and from brutal white police officers--but still, at the end, posing proudly, holding his finished book, surrounded by an exuberant whirl of pencils and erasers. Harris follows up a glancing allusion to the writer's bisexuality in the main narrative with frank acknowledgment in an afterword that also mentions his one children's book and invites young readers to "build similar friendships with books, and imagine that a better world can be brought to life with bold dreams and powerful words."
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Peters, John. "Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer." Booklist, vol. 121, no. 5-6, Nov. 2024, p. 60. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A829739929/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e857b5db. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer by Quartez Harris; illus. by Gordon C. James Primary, Intermediate Little, Brown 40 pp. 1/25 9780316483933 $18.99
Few writers have commanded the English language like James Baldwin (1924-1987). As a child in Harlem, Jimmy was expected to care for his eight siblings while his mother did domestic work. He endured a domineering stepfather, bullying, racism, and police violence. All the while, he escaped through the world of words and books. He eventually moved to France, where he used his pen to reconcile his experiences as a Black man in the United States. The result was his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, which sparked a successful literary career. Harris lyrically narrates Baldwin's childhood and his pathway to becoming a published author, highlighting how reading captivated him at a young age ("in the library, Jimmy could hear the books singing to him") and capturing the essence of a man whose literature still resonates today. James's oil on board illustrations are resplendent in rich jewel tones, with double-page spreads that are at times reminiscent of impressionist paintings. The delight of the library stacks, the fervor of Sunday service, the solitude on a hill in Central Park are all lavishly rendered. This is a beautiful tribute to Baldwin and the book that ignited his career. Back matter includes more information about Baldwin and a list of select sources, along with author and illustrator notes. Pair with Meadows and Law's Jimmy's Rhythm and Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin (rev. 3/24). MONIQUE HARRIS
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Harris, Monique. "Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 101, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 2025, p. 96. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A831534189/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bbdd61f2. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.