Earlier this month, novelist and poet Jason Reynolds received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation for his work "depicting the rich inner lives of kids of color." The latest example of that work is Twenty-Four Seconds from Now..., Reynolds' new young adult novel. The book follows a young Black couple, Neon and Aria, high school seniors who face a potential split as one of them prepares to attend college. The novel explores the couple's decisions around love and intimacy as they navigate their relationship while receiving mixed advice from parents and friends. In today's episode, Reynolds speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how rare it is for love stories to be narrated by Black boys and the complexity of young men's interior lives, especially around topics like body image and sex.

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