Paul Beatty | |
|---|---|
 Beatty in 2016 | |
| Born | (1962-06-09)June 9, 1962 (age 62) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Genre | Fiction, poetry |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards | |
Paul Beatty (born June 9, 1962) is an American author and an associate professor of writing atColumbia University.[1] In 2016, he won theNational Book Critics Circle Award and theBooker 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 graduated in 1980 fromEl Camino Real High School inWoodland Hills, California. Beatty received anMFA degree in creative writing fromBrooklyn College and anMA degree inpsychology fromBoston University. Beatty is married to filmmaker Althea Wasow,[2] sister ofBlackPlanet co-founderOmar Wasow.[3]
In 1990, Beatty was crowned the first ever GrandPoetry Slam Champion of theNuyorican Poets Cafe.[4] 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).[5] 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).[6] In 1993, he was awarded a grant from theFoundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[7]
His first novel,The White Boy Shuffle (1996), received a positive review inThe New York Times from reviewerRichard Bernstein, who called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of Black American life."[8] 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."[9] In 2006, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor calledHokum and wrote an article inThe New York Times on the same subject.[10] 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."[11]
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",[12] 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."[13] The book took more than five years to complete.[14]
The Sellout was awarded the 2015National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction,[15][16] and the2016 Man Booker Prize.[17][18] Beatty is the first American to have won the Man Booker Prize, for which all English-language novels became eligible in 2014.[19][20]
