Coates, Ta-Nehisi

Impact on the world

His 2015 memoir 'Between the World and Me,' written as a letter to his teenage son addressing the physical dangers and historical legacy facing Black Americans, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and drew direct comparisons to James Baldwin; his earlier 2014 essay 'The Case for Reparations' reignited national debate on financial restitution for slavery and its aftermath.

Life & background

Born in Baltimore to a father who was a Vietnam veteran, former Black Panther, and founder of Black Classic Press, a publishing company specializing in African American titles, Coates attended Howard University before building a career as a journalist, eventually becoming a national correspondent at The Atlantic where his writing on race, history, and politics, including his influential 2014 essay 'The Case for Reparations,' reached a national audience. His 2015 book 'Between the World and Me,' written as a letter to his son partly in response to the police killing of his college friend Prince Jones, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, drawing widespread comparisons to James Baldwin's work. He went on to publish the essay collection 'We Were Eight Years in Power,' the novel 'The Water Dancer,' and writing credits on Marvel's Black Panther and Captain America comics, received a MacArthur Fellowship, and joined the faculty at Howard University in 2021.

Sources

1. Encyclopædia Britannica; National Book Foundation