The Harlem of Myers's childhood and adolescence was a vibrant community and a melting pot. He has set many of his award-winning books in Harlem, including Here in Harlem: A Poem in Many Voices, published in 2004. Growing up in Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s, Myers was influenced by the thriving African American community around him.
Later, he would take Dean as his middle name in their honor. As a toddler, he was informally adopted by Florence and Herbert Dean and moved to Harlem. Walter Dean Myers, a prolific author of books for children and young adults, was born Walter Milton Myers on August 12, 1937, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. By using the same multi-voiced storytelling technique in Here in Harlem, Myers pays homage to an American classic while recounting the history and culture of his own community.
Masters's book became an international popular and critical success. In Masters's collection of some 200 poems, the characters are ghosts who deliver poetic monologues in a fictional Midwestern cemetery. In the introduction of Here in Harlem, Myers credits the 1915 book Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters as his inspiration. The poems are illustrated with snapshots from Myers's personal collection of over 10,000 antique photographs and other historical documents. References to historical figures, such as singer Billie Holliday, writer Langston Hughes, and boxer Joe Louis, appear throughout the poems of Here in Harlem. Together, the voices reflect the community of Harlem, which in the 1930s and 1940s was the epicenter of African American culture. Each poem is a snapshot of a particular character's life, told in that character's distinctive voice. The characters include teachers, ministers, soldiers, students, and an undertaker. It is a collection of fifty-four poems written from the different perspectives of various Harlem residents, each identified by name, age, and occupation. Here in Harlem: A Poem in Many Voices was published in 2004. The book focused on the representative historical journey of many African Americans from Africa to the southern United States, and then north to Harlem. In 1997, he published Harlem, a picture book of poetry illustrated by his son Christopher. Myers often turns to Harlem, his hometown, as a source of inspiration and as a setting for his novels and his poetry.
Most of his prize-winning works explore the experiences of urban youth. Walter Dean Myers is an accomplished and prolific writer of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for young adults.
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