Colson biography

American novelist (born 1969)

Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead^[1] (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice.^[2][3] He has also published two books of nonfiction.

In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

Early life

Whitehead was born in New York City on November 6, 1969, and grew up in Manhattan.^[4] He is one of four children of successful entrepreneur parents who owned an executive recruiting firm.^[5][6] As a child in Manhattan, Whitehead went by his first name Arch.

He later switched to Chipp, before switching to Colson.^[7] Colson Whitehead | Biography, The Underground Railroad, Books ... TYGUK