Nikki Grimes: Home is Where the Art Is
By Becky Rodia, Senior Editor

"I'm going to keep writing good books, whether I win awards or not...I raise the bar for myself."

Nikki Grimes wants to go home. She's just finished a month of author visits and conventions that took her to a different state every weekend, followed by two weeks during which she was at home for two days, then a stint that brought her home for three days. As she slouches, exhausted, on the couch in yet another air-conditioned, tastefully-decorated hotel lobby (this one's in Orlando, FL), she says she can't wait to get home from this trip, because she'll get to stay there for two weeks.

Escape into the pages. Home, for much of Nikki's life, has been a moving target.

"I'm a Harlem-born girl," she told us. "I spent most of my childhood in New York City. I lived in every borough at least twice, except for Staten Island. I was in and out of foster homes, moving every six months to a year until I got to high school. Reading became an escape for me."

Nikki describes herself in those years as "a flashlight reader." By the time she got to college, her professors had to make separate reading lists for her, because she'd already read all the books on the required reading lists.

Nikki's advice to young poets is, "Read everything - not just poetry. There's something to be gained from every good author."

Rhythm and rhyme. By that time, she'd also begun publishing her writing in literary journals. As someone who's been writing since the age of six, Nikki describes her development as a poet as "organic."

"It wasn't like somebody handed me a book of poetry," she explained. "I just liked playing with words and being able to see a picture or tell a story with as few words as possible. It turns out that was poetry, so that's what I did."

Published reviews of her books often give Nikki insight into things she was doing in her poems without even realizing she was doing it. One review of My Man Blue (Dial, 1999) took interest in Nikki's use of the sonnet form. Nikki exclaimed, "So that's what that is - a sonnet!"

Labels don't matter much to an "organic" poet like Nikki. "My whole response to poetic forms is musical," she said. "I just pick up the rhythms and find out later what they're called. I didn't have formal training as a poet; I just experience. I try everything and I read ravenously."

It might be safe to say that Nikki writes ravenously, too. She has five books coming out this year. When she's at home in Corona, CA, she writes six days a week, for four or five hours a day. The rest of her time goes into "the business of the business," as she call it - letters, e-mail, phone calls, printing out manuscripts, putting together promotional packets. "A lot goes into the business of writing," Nikki said.

That's what friends are for. Nikki also makes time for her friends. As someone who moved from place to place a lot as a child, Nikki learned to value friendship.

Nikki has written children's books since 1977. Three of her titlesare Meet Danitra Brown (HarperCollins, 1994), Under the Christmas Tree (HarperCollins, 2002) and Aneesa Lee and the Weaver's Gift (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1999).

"I always come back to friendship in my work. It's a recurring theme for me," she told us. "I have one friend whom I've known since I was 14 - the one person I've held onto through all the moving I've done. There are elements of that friendship in my Danitra Brown books. Danitra's friend, Zuri, is loosely based on this friend of mine. The events in the books are different from the things my friend and I did, though, so it's not the specifics of our friendship in those books, but it's definitely the same sort of emotional connection."

Nikki's arts group is a big part of her life as well. For the past 18 years, she's been part of a group of musicians, painters, writers, photographers - and just about every other kind of artist you can think of - who meet once a month to share their work and get feedback if they want it.

"I missed our meeting this month, because I was here in Florida," she told us. "So I called during the meeting and they passed the phone around. At the end. they all said, 'We love you and we miss you!' It was so cool."

Clearly, California has become a real home to this "Harlem-born girl." She confirmed our suspicions when she said, "I'm not going anywhere. No more moving!"

Recognizing excellence. Nikki embraces a challenging life, even though she's settled in one place. When we asked her about her 2003 Masquerade (Dial, 2002) and her 2003 Coretta Scott King Author Honor for Talkin' About Bessie (Orchard, 2002) and what she was going to do for an encore, she had this to say:

"I'm going to keep writing good books, whether I win awards or not. I believe in the pursuit of excellence for its own sake. I raise the bar for myself, and that keeps me interested. I select projects that I'm not sure I can complete. Sometimes I'm afraid of them, but that makes them the most important ones to do."

It's hard to imagine Nikki Grimes being afraid of anything. Her determination and her love of a challenge have helped her to transform her life from that of a "flashlight-reading," nomadic foster child to a successful writer who's made a home for herself.

"Everything's coming together," she said. "I feel like I'm just hitting my stride. I've got lots of books left to write."

Once she gets back home, there'll be no stopping her.

February, 2004, Volume 34, Number 5