University of Maryland Alumnus Jason Reynolds read an excerpt from his book “When I Was the Greatest” and answered questions about his journey as a writer at the University Book Center on Monday.

Jason Reynolds almost gave up on writing — twice.

The first time was when an English professor at this university crushed him by responding to a collection of his poems with, “Hope you’re still practicing.” The second time was after his first published work, My Name is Jason. Mine Too., tanked, and he had to leave New York and head home, broke. But both times, someone gave him the push he needed to try again.

Now, the 30-year-old Reynolds, a 2004 university alumnus, plans to continue writing for the rest of his career. Reynolds’ latest book, When I Was the Greatest, was published in January to generally positive reviews, and he has at least four more in the works — despite barely passing ENGL 101: Academic Writing with a D-minus.

Last night at the University Book Center, Reynolds spoke to about 50 people about his writing process, read an excerpt from the novel, signed copies and discussed some of his goals for the book.

The book’s story is set in the historically black Bed-Stuy neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and follows three teenage boys and their friendship. Most of the characters are based on people from Reynolds’ life.

Reynolds grew up in Oxon Hill — also a historically black area — with dreams of attending this university after coming to a summer basketball camp here when he was 11 years old. He said his mother is practically the mother in his book, the father is based on his father and the brother is like his brother.

“I wanted to sort of shine some light on what these neighborhoods look like,” Reynolds said. “The literary industry is extraordinarily imbalanced when it comes to people of color. I think last year, 1.8 percent of all books published were about or by people of color. I’m not trying to prove any points, I’d just like to expose some of the beauty in these neighborhoods because they are just seen as trouble, and nothing is only trouble.”

Reynolds said he chose to use inspiration from his life because he wanted the story to be real. He didn’t want to write about characters.

“I wanted to write about people that people could care about, that people felt like there was breath coming off the page,” Reynolds said. “It’s not a plot-driven story, it’s a character-driven story, so I need people to be invested in the characters.”

The writing process and his journey to the shelves has not been an easy road for Reynolds, though he does credit this university for improving his social skills and giving him the confidence he needed.

“[The University of] Maryland forces you, if you’re open to it, into circles that you normally wouldn’t feel comfortable existing in, and I think that was a very important thing for me,” Reynolds said.

He said he scraped by in his classes and switched majors at least four times, but he was inspired by his poetry. He was one of the first performers at the now-annual Juke Joint, a gig that gave him a “certain amount of confidence” by allowing him to practice spoken-word poetry.

But that confidence was shot down many times, especially when agents told Reynolds his work was terrible. If not for his mentor, children’s author Christopher Myers, telling him to give it one more try, Reynolds would not have written his book.

Above all, Reynolds said he tried to write a snapshot of normal teenage life. His mother, Sabell Reynolds, said this came across truthfully, especially in his depiction of her as the mother character in his book: stern, but gentle.

“He’s accomplished that dream, and I’m proud of him,” Sabell said. “The book surprised me because I was accustomed to reading his poetry; I didn’t know it would be that way, and I like it. I’m hoping that the others will be just as successful.”

One of Reynolds’ friends from middle school, also an alumnus of this university, showed up at the event.

“He’s probably the most genuine person from that era of my life,” said Steven Kemp, a warfare specialist for the Army and 2006 alumnus. “He was always just a fun-loving, genuine person.”

 When I Was the Greatest has been out for a little more than two months, and Reynolds said it is doing far better than he expected.

“It took me a decade for me to have an opportunity to stand up here like this,” he said. “I’m not dunking a basketball. I’m not a musician. I’m a writer, and people are excited about it.”