[laughter] >> host: kwame alexander, how did you become a writer? >> guest: how did i become a writer? so it started with my parents. my parents were my first librarians and teachers. >> host: besides reading the encyclopedias, what else? >> guest: i can't believe that. >> guest: yeah. so that's the foundation. [laughter] but, ultimately, it was girls. [laughter] i don't know, can we talk about that on c-span? >> host: sure, we're c-span. you can talk about that. >> guest: wild. >> guest: it was. it was trying to be able to learn how to communicate with girls. and i wasn't very cool. [laughter] i didn't get cool til very recently. [laughter] and so in college it was literature. i was able to write poetry because i had been immersed in language and literature even though i loathed it as a child, as a middle and high school-aged child. and so i knew be it. and so writing poetry. and so then writing love poems second year at virginia tech, who becomes a visiting professor but nicki giovanni. i end up taking her advanced poetry class, and i fashioned my