Colson Whitehead has established himself as one of the most versatile and innovative writers in contemporary literature. His novel, The Underground Railroad, is the winner of the 2016 National Book Award, the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. One of the most critically acclaimed novels in recent years, the book was a #1 New York Times bestseller, an Oprah’s Book Club 2016 selection, and Amazon’s #1 book of 2016, in addition to being included on numerous 2016 best books lists, including The New York Times‘ and The Washington Post’s top ten books of the year. Describing the book, Oprah Winfrey writes, “From the first page of Colson Whitehead’s extraordinary novel The Underground Railroad I knew I was reading something ground-shifting.”
 
Whitehead is also the New York Times bestselling author of The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, The Colossus of New York, Apex Hides the Hurt, Sag Harbor, Zone One, and The Noble Hustle. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s, and Granta among other publications.

In April 2017 Whitehead was named one of Time “100 Most Influential People.” He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for John Henry Days. 

Whitehead has taught at many universities across the country, including Columbia University, Hunter College, New York University, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and has been a Writer-in-Residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and the University of Wyoming.

His latest novel, The Nickel Boys, was published in July. Whitehead currently resides in New York City.