image via penguin random house speakers bureau
Colson Whitehead, the African-American author, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Nickel Boys. His novel tells the story of the abuse experienced by black boys who go to a juvenile reform school in Florida.
The novel is based on a real school in Florida called Dozier. Whitehead writes about what it was really like to live during the Jim Crow laws in the American South.
Whitehead is only the fourth author to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice, a great achievement! The first time he won was for his novel The Underground Railroad. It was also chosen for Oprah’s book club and was given a National Book Award.
image via oprah.com
Whitehead now joins William Faulkner, John Updike, and Booth Tarkington, who have all been two time winners of the Pulitzer Prize. Whitehead has previously stated that he wanted to become the ‘black version’ of horror writer Stephen King.
As if that wasn’t enough, Barry Jenkins is set to adapt Whitehead’s novel for Amazon.