Colson Whitehead

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Colson Whitehead
Colson whitehead 2014.jpg
Whitehead in 2014
BornArch Colson Chipp Whitehead
(1969-11-06) November 6, 1969 (age 55)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Education Harvard University (BA)
GenreFiction, non-fiction
Notable works The Intuitionist (1999), John Henry Days (2001), Zone One (2011), The Underground Railroad (2016), The Nickel Boys (2019)
Notable awards National Book Award for Fiction (2016)
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2017 and 2020)
SpouseJulie Barer
Children2
Website
colsonwhitehead.com

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.

Contents

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 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

For The Intuitionist

For John Henry Days

For Apex Hides the Hurt

For Sag Harbor

For Zone One

For The Underground Railroad

For The Nickel Boys

Literary awards

YearWorkAwardCategoryResultRef
2000 The Intuitionist PEN/Hemingway Award Shortlisted
Whiting Awards FictionWon
2001 John Henry Days Los Angeles Times Book Prize FictionShortlisted
National Book Critics Circle Award FictionShortlisted
Salon Book Award FictionWon
2002 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award FictionShortlisted
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Shortlisted
Young Lions Fiction Award FictionShortlisted
2010 Sag Harbor Hurston/Wright Legacy Award FictionShortlisted
PEN/Faulkner Award Shortlisted
2011 International Dublin Literary Award Longlisted
Long Island Reads Won
2016 The Underground Railroad Booklist Editors' Choice Adult AudioWon
Goodreads Choice Awards Historical FictionWon1st [38]
Kirkus Prize FictionShortlisted
National Book Award Fiction Won
2017 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence FictionWon
Arthur C. Clarke Award Won
Audie Award Audiobook of the Year Shortlisted
Literary Fiction & Classics Shortlisted
Female Narrator Shortlisted
BCALA Literary Awards FictionHonor
Booker Prize Longlisted
Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards NovelWon
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize FictionWon
Clark Fiction Prize Won
Dayton Literary Peace Prize FictionShortlisted
Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award Shortlisted
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award FictionWon
Indies Choice Book Awards Adult FictionWon
John W. Campbell Memorial Award Shortlisted
Locus Award Science Fiction Novel Nominated
NAACP Image Awards Fiction Shortlisted
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Shortlisted
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Won
TCK Publishing Reader's Choice Award NovelWon
2018 International Dublin Literary Award Longlisted
2019 The Nickel Boys Foyles Books of the Year FictionShortlisted
Goodreads Choice Awards Historical FictionNominated2nd [39]
Kirkus Prize FictionWon
National Book Award Fiction Longlisted
National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Shortlisted
2020 Alex Award Won
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlisted
Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlisted
Audie Award Male NarratorShortlisted
BCALA Literary Awards FictionWon
BookTube Prize FictionQuarterfinalist
Dayton Literary Peace Prize FictionShortlisted
Orwell Prize Political FictionWon
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Won
The Writers' Prize Longlisted
Lincoln Award Nominated
2021 Harlem Shuffle Booklist Editors' Choice Adult AudioWon
Goodreads Choice Awards Mystery & ThrillerNominated6th [40]
Hammett Prize Shortlisted
Kirkus Prize FictionShortlisted
National Book Critics Circle Award Fiction Shortlisted
2022 BookTube Prize FictionOctofinalist
Gotham Book Prize FictionShortlisted
Macavity Award Mystery NovelShortlisted
NAACP Image Award Fiction Shortlisted
New York City Book Award Won

Works

Fiction

Non-fiction

Essays

Short stories

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References

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Further reading