Solo is co-authored by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess. Rand Hess is a collaborative artist and poet who has worked on several books with Kwame Alexander. Like Alexander, Rand Hess is a musician who says she “grew up thinking [she] would become a rock star, but [she] was destined to tell stories instead.” Mary plays the piano and fulfills her “incessant need to compose music and create stories” (“Biography.” Mary Rand Hess) by co-authoring with fellow poet/composer, Alexander, with whom she has written Swing (2018) and Animal Ark: Celebrating our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures (2017). Rand Hess is also a screenwriter for Solo, the novel’s film adaptation in current development with Walt Disney Studios. Rand Hess spent time in the village of Konko, where Part 2 of Solo is set, and information of Mary’s trip can be found on her website.

Blink YA Books interviewed Kwame Alexander about the inspiration behind Solo, which is available on YouTube (“Kwame Alexander on Writing His YA Novel, Solo.” YouTube, uploaded by blinkyabooks, 2017). Alexander shares that he has always been a music fan, listening to gospel since he was a child.