Paul Beatty | |
|---|---|
 Beatty in 2016 | |
| Born | (1962-06-09)June 9, 1962 (age 63) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Genre | Fiction, poetry |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Notable works |
|
| Notable awards | |
| Spouse | Althea Wasow |
Paul Beatty (born June 9, 1962) is an American author and professor of writing atColumbia University.[1] In 2016, he won theNational Book Critics Circle Award and theMan Booker Prize for his novelThe Sellout. It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker.
Paul Beatty was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1962. He grew up inWest Los Angeles.[2] He was raised by a single mother and did not have a relationship with his father.[3] When he was younger, he was influenced by comedianRichard Pryor,[3] and writersJoseph Heller[4] andKurt Vonnegut.[3][4] In 1980, he graduated fromEl Camino Real High School inWoodland Hills, California. He went toBoston University for undergraduate and graduate schools, and received anMA degree inpsychology in 1987.[5] He later received anMFA degree in creative writing fromBrooklyn College.[3]
In 1990, Beatty was crowned the first ever GrandPoetry Slam Champion of theNuyorican Poets Cafe.[6] One of the prizes for winning the championship title was the book deal that resulted in his first volume of poetry,Big Bank Take Little Bank (1991).[7] This was followed by another book of poetry,Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994), and appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS (in the seriesThe United States of Poetry).[8] In 1993, he was awarded a grant from theFoundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[9]
In 1996, he lived in Berlin, Germany,[3] the same year that his first novel,The White Boy Shuffle, was published.White Boy Shuffle received a positive review fromRichard Bernstein inThe New York Times who called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of Black American life."[10] His second novel,Tuff (2000), received a positive notice inTime magazine, where it was described as being "like an extended rap song, its characters recounting struggle and survival with the bravado of hip-hoppers."[11] In 2006, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor calledHokum and wrote an article inThe New York Times on the same subject.[12] His 2008 novelSlumberland was about an American DJ in Berlin, and reviewerPatrick Neate said: "At its best, Beatty's writing is shockingly original, scabrous and very funny."[13]
In his 2015 novelThe Sellout, Beatty chronicles an urban farmer who tries to spearhead a revitalization of slavery and segregation in a fictional Los Angeles neighborhood. InThe Guardian, Elisabeth Donnelly described it as "a masterful work that establishes Beatty as the funniest writer in America",[14] while reviewerReni Eddo-Lodge called it a "whirlwind of a satire", going on to say: "Everything aboutThe Sellout's plot is contradictory. The devices are real enough to be believable, yet surreal enough to raise your eyebrows."[15] The book took more than five years to complete.[16]
The Sellout was awarded the 2015National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction,[17][18] and the2016 Man Booker Prize.[19][20] Beatty is the first American to have won the Man Booker Prize, for which all English-language novels became eligible in 2014.[21][22]
Beatty is a professor atColumbia University[1] and has taught "Literature from Los Angeles" as part of the MFA writing program.[23]
Beatty is married to filmmaker Althea Wasow,[24] sister ofBlackPlanet co-founderOmar Wasow.[25]
