Paul Beatty | |
|---|---|
 Beatty in 2016 | |
| Born | June 9, 1962 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Genre | Fiction, poetry |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards | |
| Spouse | Althea Wasow |
Paul Beatty (born June 9, 1962) is an American author and professor of writing at Columbia University. [1] In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Mann Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout . It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker.
Paul Beatty was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1962. He grew up in West Los Angeles. [2] He was raised by a single mother and did not have a relationship with his father. [3] When he was younger, he was influenced by comedian Richard Pryor, [3] and writers Joseph Heller [4] and Kurt Vonnegut. [3] [4] In 1980, he graduated from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California. He went to Boston University for undergraduate and graduate schools, and received an MA degree in psychology in 1987. [5] He later received an MFA degree in creative writing from Brooklyn College. [3]
In 1990, Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. [6] One of the prizes for winning the championship title was the book deal that resulted in his first volume of poetry, Big Bank Take Little Bank (1991). [7] This was followed by another book of poetry, Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994), and appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS (in the series The United States of Poetry). [8] In 1993, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. [9]
In 1996, he lived in Berlin, Germany, [3] the same year that his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle , was published. White Boy Shuffle received a positive review from Richard Bernstein in The New York Times who called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of Black American life." [10] His second novel, Tuff (2000), received a positive notice in Time magazine, where it was described as being "like an extended rap song, its characters recounting struggle and survival with the bravado of hip-hoppers." [11] In 2006, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor called Hokum and wrote an article in The New York Times on the same subject. [12] His 2008 novel Slumberland was about an American DJ in Berlin, and reviewer Patrick Neate said: "At its best, Beatty's writing is shockingly original, scabrous and very funny." [13]
In his 2015 novel The Sellout, Beatty chronicles an urban farmer who tries to spearhead a revitalization of slavery and segregation in a fictional Los Angeles neighborhood. In The Guardian , Elisabeth Donnelly described it as "a masterful work that establishes Beatty as the funniest writer in America", [14] while reviewer Reni Eddo-Lodge called it a "whirlwind of a satire", going on to say: "Everything about The Sellout's plot is contradictory. The devices are real enough to be believable, yet surreal enough to raise your eyebrows." [15] The book took more than five years to complete. [16]
The Sellout was awarded the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, [17] [18] and the 2016 Man Booker Prize. [19] [20] Beatty is the first American to have won the Man Booker Prize, for which all English-language novels became eligible in 2014. [21] [22]
Beatty is a professor at Columbia University [1] and has taught "Literature from Los Angeles" as part of the MFA writing program. [23]
Beatty is married to filmmaker Althea Wasow, [24] sister of BlackPlanet co-founder Omar Wasow. [25]
