Jason A. Spencer-Edwards was born on July 23, 1971 in London, England to Jamaican-born parents. He moved to New York City at the age of nine and has resided in Queens for over twenty-five years.
When Spencer-Edwards was younger, he wanted to become a lawyer. That passion sustained him through his graduation from York College in Queens, where he received his Bachelor’s in Political Science. Unsure if he was making the right choice, he took a temporary paralegal job in a prominent law firm in the city. He witnessed law from a wider scope and realized that the legal profession didn’t provide what he sought in a career. Spencer-Edwards’s creative mind and compassionate personality craved much more.
Spencer-Edwards tried a few small business ventures before realizing his true calling. With his business partner and fellow writer, Kateline Gresseau, they worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week, for two years straight years, accumulating $50,000 that they used to start their own publishing company, JASP Publishing Inc., in the summer of 2000.
Their company’s mission is to “publish books that make a difference.”
Spencer-Edwards’s first book, JIGGY, was penned in the short period of a month, and he has since written several other pieces: A Valuable Lesson, Patrol Boy, I’ve Got It Made, and Don’t Sleep.
As is evident in these lines from one of his many poems, Spencer-Edwards understands the power of the written word: “Those twenty-six letters are fearless. When put together in different combinations, they can be stronger than a tornado or a hurricane. They can cut through people or open hearts. WORDS, WORDS, WORDS. Be careful how you use them—the power they hold can be too overwhelming to the average user.”
Jason A. Spencer-Edwards has been featured in Newsday, The Wave, Riverdale Press, El Diario, Queens Press, Pandora’s Box, the New York Times, and he has been interviewed on TV in conjunction with a NFL sponsored program. The books released by JASP Publishing Inc. continue to be some of the bestselling books throughout NYC schools, as well as in different states all over the country.