Born 1969 · United States
Pulitzer 2020 · Winner
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead · 50 when first published
Novel · 224 pages · Historical, Coming of age
AI-generated summary:In early-1960s Tallahassee, a studious Black teenager inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. is wrongly sent to a brutal Florida reform school, where he befriends a boy with a far more cynical view of survival.
Pulitzer 2017 · Winner
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead · 47 when first published
Novel · 320 pages · Historical, Speculative
AI-generated summary:Cora, enslaved on a Georgia cotton plantation, escapes with Caesar on an underground railroad that is real: tracks and locomotives beneath the earth that carry runaways from state to state.
Pulitzer 2002 · Finalist
John Henry Days
Colson Whitehead · 32 when first published
Novel · 389 pages · Satire, Historical
AI-generated summary:A jaded Black freelance journalist travels to a small West Virginia town to report on a stamp issued in memory of John Henry, the legendary railroad hammer man who raced a steam drill and lost his life.