Colson Whitehead

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other 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]

File:Colson Whitehead @ BBF (6161074114).jpg
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

Literary awards

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Year Work Award Category Result Ref
2000 The Intuitionist PEN/Hemingway Award — Template:Sho
Whiting Awards Fiction Template:Won
2001 John Henry Days Los Angeles Times Book Prize Fiction Template:Sho
National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Template:Sho
Salon Book Award Fiction Template:Won
2002 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Fiction Template:Sho
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Template:Sho
Young Lions Fiction Award Fiction Template:Sho
2008 Apex Hides the Hurt PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award — Template:Won
2010 Sag Harbor Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Fiction Template:Sho
PEN/Faulkner Award — Template:Sho
2011 International Dublin Literary Award — Template:Nom
Long Island Reads — Template:Won
2012 Zone One Hurston/Wright Legacy Award — Template:Sho
2016 The Underground Railroad Booklist Editors' Choice Adult Audio Template:Won
Goodreads Choice Awards Historical Fiction Template:Won—1st [32]
Kirkus Prize Fiction Template:Sho
National Book Award Fiction Template:Won [33]
2017 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Template:Won
Arthur C. Clarke Award — Template:Won
Audie Award Audiobook of the Year Template:Sho
Literary Fiction & Classics Template:Sho
Female Narrator Template:Sho
BCALA Literary Awards Fiction Template:Sho
Booker Prize — Template:Nom
Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards Novel Template:Won
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize Fiction Template:Won
Clark Fiction Prize — Template:Won
Dayton Literary Peace Prize Fiction Template:Sho
Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award — Template:Sho
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Fiction Template:Won
Indies Choice Book Awards Adult Fiction Template:Won
John W. Campbell Memorial Award — Template:Sho
Locus Award Science Fiction Novel Template:Nom
NAACP Image Awards Fiction Template:Sho
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award — Template:Sho
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Template:Won
TCK Publishing Reader's Choice Award Novel Template:Won
2018 International Dublin Literary Award — Template:Nom
2019 The Nickel Boys Foyles Books of the Year Fiction Template:Sho
Goodreads Choice Awards Historical Fiction Template:Nom—2nd [34]
Kirkus Prize Fiction Template:Won [35]
National Book Award Fiction Template:Nom [36]
National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Template:Sho
2020 Alex Award — Template:Won
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Template:Nom
Aspen Words Literary Prize — Template:Nom
Audie Award Male Narrator Template:Sho
BCALA Literary Awards Fiction Template:Won
BookTube Prize Fiction Template:Sho
Dayton Literary Peace Prize Fiction Template:Sho
Orwell Prize Political Fiction Template:Won [37]
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Template:Won [38]
The Writers' Prize — Template:Nom
Lincoln Award — Template:Nom
2021 Harlem Shuffle Booklist Editors' Choice Adult Audio Template:Won
Goodreads Choice Awards Mystery & Thriller Template:Nom—6th [39]
Hammett Prize — Template:Sho
Kirkus Prize Fiction Template:Sho
National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Template:Sho
2022 BookTube Prize Fiction Template:Nom
Gotham Book Prize Fiction Template:Sho
Macavity Award Mystery Novel Template:Sho
NAACP Image Award Fiction Template:Sho
New York City Book Award — Template:Won

Works

Fiction

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Non-fiction

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Essays

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Short stories

References

Template:Reflist

Further reading

  • Elam, Michele. "Passing in the Post-Race Era: Danzy Senna, Philip Roth, and Colson Whitehead". African American Review, vol. 41, no. 4, 2007, pp. 749–68. JSTOR 25426988.
  • Fain, Kimberly (2015). Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature. Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Kelly, Adam (October 2018). "Freedom to Struggle: The Ironies of Colson Whitehead". Open Library of the Humanities.
  • Maus, Derek C. (2021). Understanding Colson Whitehead, revised and expanded edition. University of South Carolina Press.

External links

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Template:Colson Whitehead Template:NBA for Fiction 2000–2024 Template:PulitzerPrize Fiction 2001–2025 Template:Authority control

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  14. ↑ a b Updike, John (May 7, 2001), "Tote That Ephemera", The New Yorker.
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  16. ↑ Malloy, Allie, "Obama summer reading list: 'The Girl on the Train'", CNN, August 12, 2016.
  17. ↑ Begley, Sarah, "Here’s What President Obama Is Reading This Summer", Time, August 12, 2016.
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ "Colson Whitehead Honored Once Again for His Novel The Underground Railroad" Template:Webarchive, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, October 25, 2017.
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