Book Description

University Press returns with another short and captivating biography of one of history's most compelling figures, Amanda Gorman. Amanda Gorman was born on March 7, 1998, in Los Angeles, California. She and her twin sister were raised by a single mother - a teacher - who restricted the young Amanda's access to television and inspired in her a love for reading, writing, and language. The young Gorman was a self-described "weird child" who had a speech impediment and preferred to read books while other children her age were playing on the playground. Inspired by her mother and by a host of personal heroes that included Maya Angelou and Malala Yousafzai, Amanda excelled in school, found her voice, started a nonprofit, became a youth delegate for the United Nations, published her first poetry book at age sixteen, earned a college scholarship, graduated from Harvard University, and became the first person ever to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman, at age twenty-two, became the youngest poet in American history to read at a presidential inauguration. Just two weeks after an angry mob had stormed the United States Capitol Building, Gorman, wearing a sunny yellow coat and a bright red headband, approached the microphone in front of that same building and reminded a divided and battered nation that "...there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it." This short book tells the intensely human story of a woman who is changing the world in a way that no one else can.