Colson Whitehead


Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad, 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. 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. He is one of four children of successful entrepreneur parents, his father Arch and mother, Mary Anne Whitehead who owned an executive recruiting firm. As a child in Manhattan, Whitehead went by his first name Arch. He later switched to Chipp, before switching to Colson. He attended Trinity School in Manhattan and graduated from Harvard University in 1991. In college, he became friends with poet Kevin Young.

Career

After graduating from college, Whitehead wrote for The Village Voice. While working at the Voice, he began drafting his first novels.
Early in his career, Whitehead lived in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
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 ; John Henry Days ; The Colossus of New York ; Apex Hides the Hurt ; Sag Harbor ; 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 ; Harlem Shuffle ; and Crook Manifesto. Esquire magazine named The Intuitionist the best first novel of the year, and GQ called it one of the "novels of the millennium". 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."
The Intuitionist was nominated as the Common Novel at Rochester Institute of Technology. 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.
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. In 2017, the novel was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Colson was honored with the 2017 Hurston/Wright Award for fiction presented by the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. 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".
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. 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". The Nickel Boys won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 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". It was Whitehead's second win, making him the fourth writer to win the prize twice. In 2022, it was announced that Whitehead will executive produce the upcoming film adaptation of the same name.
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. 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. Harlem Shuffle was published by Doubleday on September 14, 2021. Crook Manifesto, Whitehead's ninth novel and a follow-up to Harlem Shuffle, was published on July 18, 2023. Cool Machine, Whitehead's tenth novel and the conclusion to his "Harlem Trilogy," will be published on July 21, 2026.

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.

Honors

YearWorkAwardCategoryResultRef
2000The IntuitionistPEN/Hemingway Award—
2000The IntuitionistWhiting AwardsFictionWon
2001John Henry DaysLos Angeles Times Book PrizeFiction
2001John Henry DaysNational Book Critics Circle AwardFiction
2001John Henry DaysSalon Book AwardFictionWon
2002John Henry DaysAnisfield-Wolf Book AwardFiction
2002John Henry DaysPulitzer PrizeFiction
2002John Henry DaysYoung Lions Fiction AwardFiction
2008Apex Hides the HurtPEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award—Won
2010Sag HarborHurston/Wright Legacy AwardFiction
2010Sag HarborPEN/Faulkner Award—
2011Sag HarborInternational Dublin Literary Award—
2011Sag HarborLong Island Reads—Won
2012Zone OneHurston/Wright Legacy Award—
2016The Underground RailroadBooklist Editors' ChoiceAdult AudioWon
2016The Underground RailroadGoodreads Choice AwardsHistorical FictionWon1st
2016The Underground RailroadKirkus PrizeFiction
2016The Underground RailroadNational Book AwardFictionWon
2017The Underground RailroadAndrew Carnegie Medals for ExcellenceFictionWon
2017The Underground RailroadArthur C. Clarke Award—Won
2017The Underground RailroadAudie AwardAudiobook of the Year
2017The Underground RailroadAudie AwardLiterary Fiction & Classics
2017The Underground RailroadAudie AwardFemale Narrator
2017The Underground RailroadBCALA Literary AwardsFiction
2017The Underground RailroadBooker Prize—
2017The Underground RailroadBooks Are My Bag Readers' AwardsNovelWon
2017The Underground RailroadChicago Tribune Heartland PrizeFictionWon
2017The Underground RailroadClark Fiction Prize—Won
2017The Underground RailroadDayton Literary Peace PrizeFiction
2017The Underground RailroadGoldsboro Books Glass Bell Award—
2017The Underground RailroadHurston/Wright Legacy AwardFictionWon
2017The Underground RailroadIndies Choice Book AwardsAdult FictionWon
2017The Underground RailroadJohn W. Campbell Memorial Award—
2017The Underground RailroadLocus AwardScience Fiction NovelNomitated
2017The Underground RailroadNAACP Image AwardsFiction
2017The Underground RailroadPEN/Jean Stein Book Award—
2017The Underground RailroadPulitzer PrizeFictionWon
2017The Underground RailroadTCK Publishing Reader's Choice AwardNovelWon
2018The Underground RailroadInternational Dublin Literary Award—
2019The Nickel BoysFoyles Books of the YearFiction
2019The Nickel BoysGoodreads Choice AwardsHistorical FictionNomitated2nd
2019The Nickel BoysKirkus PrizeFictionWon
2019The Nickel BoysNational Book AwardFiction
2019The Nickel BoysNational Book Critics Circle AwardFiction
2020The Nickel BoysAlex Award—Won
2020The Nickel BoysAndrew Carnegie Medals for ExcellenceFiction
2020The Nickel BoysAspen Words Literary Prize—
2020The Nickel BoysAudie AwardMale Narrator
2020The Nickel BoysBCALA Literary AwardsFictionWon
2020The Nickel BoysBookTube PrizeFiction
2020The Nickel BoysDayton Literary Peace PrizeFiction
2020The Nickel BoysOrwell PrizePolitical FictionWon
2020The Nickel BoysPulitzer PrizeFictionWon
2020The Nickel BoysThe Writers' Prize—
2020The Nickel BoysLincoln Award—Nomitated
2021Harlem ShuffleBooklist Editors' ChoiceAdult AudioWon
2021Harlem ShuffleGoodreads Choice AwardsMystery & ThrillerNomitated6th
2021Harlem ShuffleHammett Prize—
2021Harlem ShuffleKirkus PrizeFiction
2021Harlem ShuffleNational Book Critics Circle AwardFiction
2022Harlem ShuffleBookTube PrizeFiction
2022Harlem ShuffleGotham Book PrizeFiction
2022Harlem ShuffleMacavity AwardMystery Novel
2022Harlem ShuffleNAACP Image AwardFiction
2022Harlem ShuffleNew York City Book Award—Won