American novelist (born 1969)
Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead
[1] (born November 6, 1969) is an American
novelist . He is the author of nine novels, including his
1999 debut
The Intuitionist ;
The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016
National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction ; and
The Nickel Boys , for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice.
[2]
[3] He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a
MacArthur Fellowship .
Early life
Whitehead was born in
New York City on November 6, 1969, and grew up in
Manhattan .
[4] He is one of four children of successful entrepreneur parents who owned an executive recruiting firm.
[5]
[6] As a child in Manhattan, Whitehead went by his first name Arch. He later switched to Chipp, before switching to Colson.
[7] He attended
Trinity School in Manhattan and graduated from
Harvard University in 1991. In college, he became friends with poet
Kevin Young .
[8]
Career
After graduating from college, Whitehead wrote for
The Village Voice .
[9]
[10] While working at the Voice , he began drafting his first novels.
Early in his career, Whitehead lived in
Fort Greene, Brooklyn .
[11]
Whitehead has since produced 11 book-length works—nine novels and two nonfiction works, including a meditation on life in Manhattan in the style of
E. B. White 's famous 1949 essay Here Is New York . Whitehead's books are
The Intuitionist (1999);
John Henry Days (2001);
The Colossus of New York (2003);
Apex Hides the Hurt (2006);
Sag Harbor (2009); 2011's
Zone One , a
New York Times bestseller ; 2016's The Underground Railroad , which earned a
National Book Award for Fiction ;
The Nickel Boys (2019);
[12]
[13]
Harlem Shuffle (2021); and
Crook Manifesto (2023).
Esquire magazine named The Intuitionist the best first novel of the year, and
GQ called it one of the "novels of the millennium".
[14] Novelist
John Updike , reviewing The Intuitionist in
The New Yorker , called Whitehead "ambitious", "scintillating", and "strikingly original", adding: "The young African-American writer to watch may well be a thirty-one-year-old Harvard graduate with the vivid name of Colson Whitehead."
[14]
The Intuitionist was nominated as the Common Novel at
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The Common Novel nomination was part of a longtime tradition at the Institute that included such authors as
Maya Angelou ,
Andre Dubus III ,
William Joseph Kennedy , and
Anthony Swofford .
Whitehead's nonfiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including
The New York Times ,
The New Yorker ,
Granta , and
Harper's .
[15]
Whitehead at the 2011
Brooklyn Book Festival
His nonfiction account of the
2011 World Series of Poker , The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky & Death , was published by
Doubleday in 2014.
Whitehead has taught at
Princeton University ,
New York University , the
University of Houston ,
Columbia University ,
Brooklyn College ,
Hunter College , and
Wesleyan University . He has been a writer-in-residence at
Vassar College , the
University of Richmond , and the
University of Wyoming .
In 2015, he joined
The New York Times Magazine to write a column on language.
The Underground Railroad was a selection of
Oprah's Book Club 2.0 , and was chosen by President
Barack Obama as one of five books on his summer vacation reading list.
[16]
[17] In 2017, the novel was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference in
Atlanta, Georgia .
[18] Colson was honored with the 2017
Hurston/Wright Award for fiction presented by the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation.
[19] The Underground Railroad won the
2017
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . Judges of the prize called the novel "a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America".
[20]
Whitehead's seventh novel,
The Nickel Boys , was published in 2019. It was inspired by the story of the
Dozier School for Boys in Florida, where children convicted of minor offenses suffered violent abuse.
[21] In conjunction with its publication, Whitehead was featured on the cover
Time magazine's July 8, 2019, edition, alongside the
strap-line "America's Storyteller".
[5] The Nickel Boys won the
2020
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction .
[22] Judges of the prize called the novel "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption".
[23] It was Whitehead's second win, making him the fourth writer to win the prize twice.
[24] In 2022, it was announced that Whitehead will executive produce the upcoming
film adaptation of the same name .
[25]
Whitehead's eighth novel,
Harlem Shuffle , was conceived and begun before he wrote The Nickel Boys . It is a work of crime fiction set in Harlem during the 1960s.
[5] Whitehead spent years writing it, and finished it in "bite-sized chunks" during the months he spent in quarantine in New York City during the
COVID-19 pandemic .
[26] Harlem Shuffle was published by Doubleday on September 14, 2021.
[27]
Crook Manifesto , Whitehead's ninth novel and a follow-up to Harlem Shuffle , was published on July 18, 2023.
[28]
Personal life
Whitehead lives in Manhattan and also owns a home in
Sag Harbor on
Long Island . His wife, Julie Barer, is a literary agent. They have two children.
[29]
Honors
Works
Fiction
Non-fiction
Essays
Short stories
References
^
Sehgal, Parul (July 11, 2019).
"In 'The Nickel Boys,' Colson Whitehead Continues to Make a Classic American Genre His Own" .
The New York Times .
Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .
^
"2017 Pulitzer Prize Winners and Nominees" .
The Pulitzer Prizes . 2017.
Archived from the original on April 11, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2017 .
^
"2020 Pulitzer Prizes" . The Pulitzer Prizes. 2020.
Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
^ Maus, Derek C. (2021).
Understanding Colson Whitehead (2nd ed.).
University of South Carolina Press . p. 2.
ISBN
978-1-64336-175-8 .
OCLC
1228234654 .
Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved September 4, 2021 .
^
a
b
c Jackson, Mitchell S. (June 27, 2019).
" 'I Carry It Within Me.' Novelist Colson Whitehead Reminds Us How America's Racist History Lives On" .
Time .
Archived from the original on November 23, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019 .
^ Brockes, Emma (July 7, 2017).
"Colson Whitehead: 'To deal with this subject with the gravity it deserved was scary' " .
The Guardian .
Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2019 .
^ Sandhu, Sukhdev (July 20, 2019).
"Colson Whitehead: 'We have kids in concentration camps. But I have to be hopeful' " . The Guardian .
Archived from the original on May 6, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .
^ Purcell, Andrew (May 20, 2017).
"Colson Whitehead: 'The truth of things, not the facts' " . Western Advocate .
Archived from the original on August 8, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017 .
^
"Colson Whitehead" . Colsonwhitehead.com. Archived from
the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2008 .
^ Smith, Nancy (July 17, 2012).
"Interview with Colson Whitehead" . The Rumpus .
Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2013 .
^ Whitehead, Colson (April 23, 2004).
"Don't You Be My Neighbor" . NYMag.com .
Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved February 19, 2019 .
^
"The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, 2016 National Book Award Winner, Fiction" . Archived from
the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2016 .
^
"Colson Whitehead" . Pen.org. Archived from
the original on June 10, 2007. Retrieved March 18, 2008 .
^
a
b Updike, John (May 7, 2001), "Tote That Ephemera",
The New Yorker .
^
a
b
"Colson Whitehead to be awarded Longwood's Dos Passos Prize for Literature" . Longwood University. February 25, 2013. Archived from
the original on May 12, 2013. Retrieved May 17, 2013 .
^ Malloy, Allie,
"Obama summer reading list: 'The Girl on the Train'"
Archived August 13, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine ,
CNN , August 12, 2016.
^ Begley, Sarah,
"Here’s What President Obama Is Reading This Summer"
Archived August 15, 2016, at the
Wayback Machine , Time , August 12, 2016.
^ French, Agatha (January 23, 2017).
"American Library Assn.'s 2017 award winners include 'March: Book Three' by Rep. John Lewis" .
Los Angeles Times .
Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2017 .
^
"Colson Whitehead Honored Once Again for His Novel The Underground Railroad "
Archived October 25, 2017, at the
Wayback Machine ,
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education , October 25, 2017.
^
"The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)" . pulitzer.org .
Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved January 20, 2021 .
^
"Author wins Pulitzer Prize for a second time" . BBC News . May 5, 2020.
Archived from the original on May 5, 2020. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .
^ Lee, Benjamin (May 4, 2020).
"Colson Whitehead and This American Life among Pulitzer 2020 winners" . The Guardian .
Archived from the original on May 4, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
^ Maher, John (May 4, 2020).
"Moser, Whitehead, McDaniel, Grandin, Boyer, Brown Win 2020 Pulitzers" .
Publishers Weekly .
Archived from the original on November 30, 2021. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
^ Tucker, Emma (May 4, 2020).
"Colson Whitehead Wins Second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction" .
The Daily Beast .
Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
^ Grobar, Matt t (October 27, 2022).
"Aunjanue Ellis & Four Others Set For RaMell Ross' Colson Whitehead Adaptation 'The Nickel Boys' For MGM's Orion; Plan B, Anonymous Producing" .
Deadline Hollywood .
Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2023 .
^ Canfield, David (July 15, 2020).
"Colson Whitehead is now the most decorated writer of his generation. He's not slowing down" .
Entertainment Weekly .
Archived from the original on December 10, 2020. Retrieved January 2, 2021 .
^
"Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead" .
Penguin Random House .
Archived from the original on December 21, 2020. Retrieved December 26, 2020 .
^
"Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead: 9780385545150 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books" . PenguinRandomhouse.com . Retrieved July 6, 2023 .
^ O'Hagan, Sean (June 21, 2020).
"Colson Whitehead: 'We invent all sorts of different reasons to hate people' " .
The Observer .
Archived from the original on September 4, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2021 .
^ Gonzalez-Espinoza, Karina G.; Lin, Grace (April 27, 2018).
"Novelist Colson Whitehead Wins 2018 Harvard Arts Medal" . The Harvard Crimson .
Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved January 18, 2021 .
^
"Library of Congress to honor author Colson Whitehead" . AP News . July 13, 2020.
Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2020 .
^ Alter, Alexandra (October 6, 2016).
"National Book Awards Finalists Include Colson Whitehead and Viet Thanh Nguyen" .
The New York Times .
Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved December 11, 2023 . Crucchiola, Jordan (November 16, 2016).
"Here Are the 2016 National Book Award Winners" .
Vulture .
Archived from the original on December 12, 2023. Retrieved December 12, 2023 .
^ Albanese, Andrew (January 23, 2017).
"ALA Midwinter 2017: Colson Whitehead, Matthew Desmond Win ALA Carnegie Medals" . PublishersWeekly.com .
Archived from the original on January 25, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017 .
^
"Announcement of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winners" . The Pulitzer Prizes . May 4, 2020.
Archived from the original on May 4, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020 .
^
"Clanchy, Whitehead win 2020 Orwell Prize" . Books+Publishing . July 10, 2020.
Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020 .
^
"Colson Whitehead Novel Wins $50,000 Kirkus Prize" .
U.S. News & World Report .
Associated Press . October 24, 2019.
Archived from the original on April 18, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2002 .
^ Malone Kircher, Madison (September 20, 2019).
"Here Is the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction Longlist" .
Vulture .
Archived from the original on December 22, 2023. Retrieved December 22, 2023 .
Further reading
External links
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