Colson Whitehead Popular Books

Colson Whitehead Biography & Facts

Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020 for The Nickel Boys. He has also published two books of non-fiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Genius Grant. Life Arch Colson Chipp 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 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.Early in his career, Whitehead lived in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. He 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. Career After graduating from college, Whitehead wrote for The Village Voice. While working at the Voice, he began drafting his first novels. Whitehead has since produced ten book-length works—eight novels and two non-fiction works, including a meditation on life in Manhattan in the style of E.B. White's famous essay Here Is New York. His books are 1999's The Intuitionist; 2001's John Henry Days; 2003's The Colossus of New York; 2006's Apex Hides the Hurt; 2009's Sag Harbor; 2011's Zone One, a New York Times bestseller; 2016's The Underground Railroad, which earned a National Book Award for Fiction; 2019's The Nickel Boys; and 2021's Harlem Shuffle. 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."Whitehead's The Intuitionist was nominated as the Common Novel at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The Common Novel nomination was part of a long-time tradition at the Institute that included authors like Maya Angelou, Andre Dubus III, William Joseph Kennedy, and Anthony Swofford. Whitehead's non-fiction, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Granta, and Harper's. His non-fiction 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 the spring of 2015, he joined The New York Times Magazine to write a column on language. His 2016 novel, 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 January 2017 it was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction at the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference in Atlanta, GA. 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 July 2019. The novel was inspired by the real-life story of the Dozier School for Boys in Florida, where children convicted of minor offences suffered violent abuse. In conjunction with the publication of The Nickel Boys, Whitehead was featured on the cover of Time magazine for the 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 in history to have won 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 the novel, and ultimately finished it in "bite-sized chunks" during the months he spent in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. Harlem Shuffle was published by Doubleday on September 14, 2021. Honors Works Fiction The Intuitionist (1999), ISBN 0-385-49299-5 John Henry Days (2001), ISBN 0-385-49819-5 Apex Hides the Hurt (2006), ISBN 0-385-50795-X Sag Harbor (2009), ISBN 0-385-52765-9 Zone One (2011), ISBN 978-0-385-52807-8 The Underground Railroad (2016), ISBN 978-0-385-54236-4 The Nickel Boys (2019), ISBN 978-0-385-53707-0 Harlem Shuffle (2021), ISBN 978-0-385-54513-6 Crook Manifesto (2023), ISBN 978-0-385-54515-0Non-fiction The Colossus of New York (2003), ISBN 978-0385507943 The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky & Death (2014), ISBN 978-0385537056Essays "Lost and Found". The New York Times Magazine. November 11, 2001. "A Psychotronic Childhood". The New Yorker. June 4, 2012. "Hard Times in the Uncanny Valley". Grantland. ESPN. August 24, 2012. "Occasional Dispatches from the Republic of Anhedonia". Grantland. ESPN. May 19, 2013.Short stories "Down in Front". Granta (86: Film). Summer 2004. (subscription required) "The Gangsters". The New Yorker. December 22, 2008. "The Match". The New Yorker. April 1, 2019. "The Theresa Job". The New Yorker. July 26, 2021.References Further reading Fain, Kimberly. Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Kelly, Adam. "Freedom to Struggle: The Ironies of Colson Whitehead". Open Library of the Humanities (October 2018). Maus, Derek C. Understanding Colson Whitehead, revised and expanded edition. University of South Carolina Press, 2021.External links Official website Appearances on C-SPAN Profile at The Whiting Foundation On Point - What's in a Name? (interview, 2006-09-04). Discover the Colson Whitehead popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Colson Whitehead books.

Best Seller Colson Whitehead Books of 2023

  • Sommaire De Le Chemin De Fer Clandestin Par Colson Whitehead Un Roman synopsis, comments

    Sommaire De Le Chemin De Fer Clandestin Par Colson Whitehead Un Roman

    Speed Read Publishing

    Speed Read Publishing a créé un résumé du livre pour votre plaisir de lecture. Conçu pour améliorer votre expérience de lecture.Que comprend ce résumé ?Chaque partie sage chap...

  • Understanding Colson Whitehead synopsis, comments

    Understanding Colson Whitehead

    Derek C. Maus

    An inviting point of entrance into the truth seeking, genre defying novels of the awardwinning authorIn 2020 Colson Whitehead became the youngest recipient of the Library of Congre...

  • Harlem Shuffle synopsis, comments

    Harlem Shuffle

    Instant-Summary

    Harlem Shuffle A Comprehensive Summary It's impossible and engaging hero is Ray Carney, who, when the story starts in 1959, is anticipating a second child with his wife, Elizabet...

  • A Black Boy at Eton synopsis, comments

    A Black Boy at Eton

    Dillibe Onyeama

    'The story [Onyeama] had to tell was so gripping and shocking, it wouldn't let me go . . . A remarkably wellwritten memoir' Bernardine Evaristo, from the IntroductionDillibe was th...

  • Harlem Shuffle synopsis, comments

    Harlem Shuffle

    Colson Whitehead

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the twotime Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is  “fastpaced, ke...

  • Zusammenfassung Von Die U-Bahn Von Colson Whitehead Ein Roman synopsis, comments

    Zusammenfassung Von Die U-Bahn Von Colson Whitehead Ein Roman

    Speed Read Publishing

    Speed Read Publishing hat eine Buchzusammenfassung für Ihr Lesevergnügen erstellt. Entwickelt, um Ihr Leseerlebnis zu verbessern.Was beinhaltet diese Zusammenfassung?Jedes Teilweis...

  • The Travels of Sir John Mandeville synopsis, comments

    The Travels of Sir John Mandeville

    John Mandeville & Charles Moseley

    Ostensibly written by an English knight, the Travels purport to relate his experiences in the Holy Land, Egypt, India and China. Mandeville claims to have served in the Great Khan'...

  • Memorial Drive synopsis, comments

    Memorial Drive

    Natasha Trethewey

    An Instant New York Times Bestseller A New York Times Notable Book One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2020Named One of the Best Books of the Year by: The&#...

  • Felix Holt synopsis, comments

    Felix Holt

    George Eliot & Lynda Mugglestone

    When the young nobleman Harold Transome returns to England from the colonies with a selfmade fortune, he scandalizes the town of Treby Magna with his decision to stand for Parliame...

  • The Death of King Arthur synopsis, comments

    The Death of King Arthur

    Penguin Books Ltd

    Recounting the final days of Arthur, this thirteenthcentury French version of the Camelot legend, written by an unknown author, is set in a world of fading chivalric glory. It depi...

  • Zone One synopsis, comments

    Zone One

    Colson Whitehead

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER From the twotime Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys: A pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity...

  • ROAR synopsis, comments

    ROAR

    Bruce Wagner

    A new novel by Hollywood’s "master of satire."The myth of an epic, public lifeits triumphs and tragediesis a particularly American obsession. ROAR is a metafictional exploration of...

  • Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories synopsis, comments

    Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories

    Giovanni Verga

    The stories of Giovanni Verga (18401922) are wonderful evocations of ordinary Italian life, focusing in particular on his native Sicily. In an original and dynamic prose style, he ...

  • Ask the Dust synopsis, comments

    Ask the Dust

    John Fante

    Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentiethcentury American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who f...

  • Boy Friends synopsis, comments

    Boy Friends

    Michael Pedersen

    An intimate and original memoir of love, grief and male friendship by one of Scotland's An intimate and original memoir of love, grief and male friendship by one of Scotland's brig...

  • Manhattan Beach synopsis, comments

    Manhattan Beach

    Jennifer Egan

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Times Notable BookWinner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in FictionThe daring and magnificent novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winnin...

  • Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice synopsis, comments

    Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice

    James Branch Cabell

    Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice is a fantasy novel by American writer James Branch Cabell, which gained fame (or notoriety) shortly after its publication in 1919. It is a humorous romp...

  • Welcome to Braggsville synopsis, comments

    Welcome to Braggsville

    T. Geronimo Johnson

    LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2015 BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, MEN’S JOURNAL, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, KANSAS CITY STAR, B...

  • Sommario Di La Ferrovia Sotterranea Di Colson Whitehead Un Romanzo synopsis, comments

    Sommario Di La Ferrovia Sotterranea Di Colson Whitehead Un Romanzo

    Speed Read Publishing

    Speed Read Publishing ha creato un riassunto del libro per il tuo piacere di lettura. Progettato per migliorare la tua esperienza di lettura.Cosa include questo riepilogo?Ogni capi...

  • Resumo Do The Underground Railroad Por Colson Whitehead Um Romance synopsis, comments

    Resumo Do The Underground Railroad Por Colson Whitehead Um Romance

    Speed Read Publishing

    A Speed Read Publishing criou um resumo do livro para seu prazer de leitura. Projetado para aprimorar sua experiência de leitura.O que este resumo inclui?Cada capítulo parcial do l...

  • Samenvatting Van De Ondergrondse Spoorweg Door Colson Whitehead Een roman synopsis, comments

    Samenvatting Van De Ondergrondse Spoorweg Door Colson Whitehead Een roman

    Speed Read Publishing

    Speed Read Publishing heeft een samenvatting van het boek gemaakt voor uw leesplezier. Ontworpen om uw leeservaring te verbeteren.Wat houdt deze samenvatting in?Elk deels wijs hoof...

  • Capital synopsis, comments

    Capital

    Karl Marx & David Fernbach

    Unfinished at the time of Marx's death in 1883 and first published with a preface by Frederick Engels in 1894, the third volume of Das Kapital strove to combine the theories and co...

  • Forty Acres synopsis, comments

    Forty Acres

    Dwayne Alexander Smith

    “A thriller in a class by itselfbrilliant and scary!” Terry McMillan Read the pageturning, provocative thriller that will forever change the way you think about slavery and its leg...

  • Conspicuous Consumption synopsis, comments

    Conspicuous Consumption

    Thorstein Veblen

    With its wry portrayal of a shallow, materialistic 'leisure class' obsessed by clothes, cars, consumer goods and climbing the social ladder, this withering satire on modern capital...

  • Stolen synopsis, comments

    Stolen

    Richard Bell

    This “superbly researched and engaging” (The Wall Street Journal) true story about five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep Southand their da...

  • Immortal Life synopsis, comments

    Immortal Life

    Stanley Bing

    An ancient mogul has bought the power to live forever, but the strong young body he plans to inhabit has other ideas. The battle for immortal life begins in Stanley Bing’s “stimula...

  • Crook Manifesto synopsis, comments

    Crook Manifesto

    Colson Whitehead

    Twotime Pulitzer Prize winning Colson Whitehead continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugelyentertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.It’s 1971.&#...

  • Summary of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead synopsis, comments

    Summary of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

    C.B. PUBLISHERS

    Original Book Plot:"Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked..." Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture to his customers and neighbo...

  • Summary Of The Underground Railroad By Colson Whitehead A Novel synopsis, comments

    Summary Of The Underground Railroad By Colson Whitehead A Novel

    Speed Read Publishing

    Speed Read Publishing has created a Summary of book for your reading pleasure. Designed to enhance your reading experience. What does this Summary Include?Each Part wise Chapt...

  • Black Rain Falling synopsis, comments

    Black Rain Falling

    Jacob Ross

    'Jacob Ross is a truly amazing writer. Black Rain Falling is an outstanding novel' BERNARDINE EVARISTO, WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE'Jacob Ross is a unique and thrilling new voice in...

  • No Holding Back synopsis, comments

    No Holding Back

    Michael Holding

    The autobiography of West Indies fastbowling legend turned Sky pundit, Michael Holding, author of the awardwinning Why We Kneel, How We RiseAs one of the fastest bowlers the world ...

  • Colson Whitehead synopsis, comments

    Colson Whitehead

    Kimberly Fain

    In this volume, Fain discusses how Whitehead’s novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive, thus broadening the scope of who is considered an Ame...

  • The Histories synopsis, comments

    The Histories

    Tacitus

    In AD68 Nero's suicide marked the end of the first dynasty of imperial Rome. The following year was one of drama and danger, though not of chaos.In the surviving books of his Histo...

  • The Underground Railroad synopsis, comments

    The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures...

  • Substitute Me synopsis, comments

    Substitute Me

    Lori L. Tharps

    Zora Anderson is a 30yearold African American middle class, college educated woman, trained as a chef, looking for a job. As fate would have it, Kate and Craig, a married coup...

  • The Down Days synopsis, comments

    The Down Days

    Ilze Hugo

    In the vein of The Book of M comes a “dynamic, fastpaced debut” (Publishers Weekly) and characterdriven literary apocalyptic novel that explores life, love, and loss in a posttruth...

  • The Agitators synopsis, comments

    The Agitators

    Dorothy Wickenden

    An LA Times Best Book of the Year, Christopher Award Winner, and Chautauqua Prize Finalist! “Engrossing... examines the major events of the mid 19th century through the lives of th...

  • Ulysses synopsis, comments

    Ulysses

    James Joyce

    Arguably the greatest novel of the twentieth century, James Joyce's Ulysses remains as much of a shocking and redemptive testament to the human condition as it was when it was firs...