E58: Social Impact Through Storytelling with Wesley King

In episode 58, Wesley King, co-author of the best-selling book series The Wizenard Series, along with ten other novels, works to promote literacy for young people by writing stories that are truly relatable to a middle grade audience. King, who collaborated with the late Kobe Bryant, discusses the process of working on The Wizenard Series, which consists of several books that tackle the psychological challenges young athletes deal with on a daily basis (6:50). As someone who struggled with OCD and anxiety himself when he was younger and continues to do so today, King discusses his coming of age (17:07) and how he thinks we can better understand and support people that are struggling with mental health (22:27). Since the pandemic started, King has been working to craft a story with author, Chandler Baker, called Hello (from here), which comes out this September, about the obstacles and difficulties growing up during the pandemic (31:57). While King has already had so much success as an author, he is beginning a new project about celebrating neurodiversity by focusing on a character who is autistic, a story based-off of his brother who is on the spectrum (47:08).


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Connect with Wesley:

IG: @wesleykingauthor

wesleytking.com