Paul Beatty

{{Infobox writer

| name = Paul Beatty

| image = PaulBeatty.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Beatty in 2016

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1962|06|09}}

| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| spouse = Althea Wasow

| education = {{plainlist|

Brooklyn College (MFA)
Boston University (MA)

}}

| years_active = 1990s–present

| genre = Fiction, poetry

| awards = {{plainlist|

}}

| notable_works = {{plainlist|

The White Boy Shuffle (1996)
The Sellout (2015)

}}

Paul Beatty (born June 9, 1962) is an American author and professor of writing at Columbia University.[https://arts.columbia.edu/profiles/paul-beatty Paul Beatty. Professor, Writing. Teaching Spring 2025.] Columbia University. Retrieved April 23, 2025. In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker.

Early life and education

Paul Beatty was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1962. He grew up in West Los Angeles.Sylvanise, Frédéric and Paul Beatty (July 17, 2013). [https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/6709 An Interview with Paul Beatty, Transatlantica, 2 | 2013, mis en ligne le 12 avril 2014, consulté le 23 avril 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/6709 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/transatlantica.6709.] He was raised by a single mother and did not have a relationship with his father. When he was younger, he was influenced by comedian Richard Pryor, and writers Joseph HellerJackson, Chris (May 7, 2015). [https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/05/07/our-thing-an-interview-with-paul-beatty/ Our Thing: An Interview with Paul Beatty.] The Paris Review. Retrieved April 23, 2025. and Kurt Vonnegut. In 1980, he graduated from El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California. He went to Boston University for undergraduate and graduate schools, and received an MA degree in psychology in 1987.[https://www.bu.edu/psych/2016/10/26/pbs-alum-paul-beatty-wins-man-booker-prize-for-fiction/ PBS Alum Paul Beatty Wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction.] Boston University Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Retrieved April 23, 2025. He later received an MFA degree in creative writing from Brooklyn College.

Career

In 1990, Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe (2008), Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. Soft Skull Press, p. 45. {{ISBN|1-933368-82-9}}. 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).Aptowicz, p. 46. This was followed by another book of poetry, Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994), and appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS (in the series The United States of Poetry).Aptowicz, p. 80. In 1993, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/recipients/paul-beatty "Grants to artists, Poetry 1993 | Paul Beatty"], Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

In 1996, he lived in Berlin, Germany,Shavers, Rone (Summer 2000). [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2000/07/01/paul-beatty/ Interview: Paul Beatty.] BOMB Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2025. the same year that his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle, was published. White Boy Shuffle received a positive review from Richard Bernstein in The New York Times who called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of Black American life."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/31/books/books-of-the-times-black-poet-s-first-novel-aims-the-jokes-both-ways.html|title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Black Poet's First Novel Aims the Jokes Both Ways|last=Bernstein|first=Richard|date=May 31, 1996|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=August 5, 2016}} His second novel, Tuff (2000), received a positive notice in Time magazine, where it was described as being "like an extended rap song, its characters recounting struggle and survival with the bravado of hip-hoppers."Philadelphia, Desa, [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,996793,00.html "Books: Tuff By Paul Beatty"], Time Magazine, May 1, 2000. In 2006, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor called Hokum and wrote an article in The New York Times on the same subject.{{cite news|last=Beatty|first=Paul|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22beatty.html |title=Black Humor|newspaper=The New York Times|date= January 22, 2006}} His 2008 novel Slumberland was about an American DJ in Berlin, and reviewer Patrick Neate said: "At its best, Beatty's writing is shockingly original, scabrous and very funny."{{cite news|first=Patrick|last=Neate|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/06/fiction-slumberland-paul-beatty-patrick-neate |title=Jukebox sommelier|newspaper=The Guardian'|date=December 6, 2008}}

In his 2015 novel The Sellout, Beatty chronicles an urban farmer who tries to spearhead a revitalization of slavery and segregation in a fictional Los Angeles neighborhood. In The Guardian, Elisabeth Donnelly described it as "a masterful work that establishes Beatty as the funniest writer in America",{{cite news|last=Donnelly|first=Elisabeth|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/10/paul-beatty-interview-the-sellout |title=Paul Beatty on writing, humor and race: 'There are very few books that are funny'|newspaper=The Guardian|date= March 10, 2015}} while reviewer Reni Eddo-Lodge called it a "whirlwind of a satire", going on to say: "Everything about The Sellout{{'}}s plot is contradictory. The devices are real enough to be believable, yet surreal enough to raise your eyebrows."{{cite news|last=Eddo-Lodge|first=Reni|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/11/the-sellout-by-paul-beatty-review |title=The Sellout by Paul Beatty review – a whirlwind satire about racial identity|newspaper=The Guardian|date= May 11, 2016}} The book took more than five years to complete.[https://www.economist.com/news/books/21709260-first-american-winner-man-booker-prize-swiftian-hero "A Swiftian hero"], The Economist, October 29, 2016. Article withdrawn for similarities with other articles, with apology.

The Sellout was awarded the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction,[http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/national-book-critics-circle-announces-award-winners-for-publishing-ye1 "National Book Critics Circle Announces Award Winners for Publishing Year 2015"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105095830/http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/national-book-critics-circle-announces-award-winners-for-publishing-ye1 |date=November 5, 2016 }}, March 17, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2016.{{cite news|last=Sandhu|first=Sukhdev|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/24/paul-beatty-interview-the-sellout |title=Paul Beatty: 'Slam poetry, TED talks: they're for short attention spans'|newspaper=The Guardian|date=June 24, 2016}} and the 2016 Man Booker Prize.[http://themanbookerprize.com/news/sellout-wins-2016-man-booker-prize "Sellout Wins 2016 Man Booker Prize"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161028005633/http://themanbookerprize.com/news/sellout-wins-2016-man-booker-prize |date=October 28, 2016 }}. The Man Booker Prize.{{cite news|last=Alter|first= Alexandra|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/business/media/paul-beatty-wins-man-booker-prize-with-the-sellout.html |title=Paul Beatty Wins Man Booker Prize With 'The Sellout'|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 25, 2016|access-date= October 25, 2016}} Beatty is the first American to have won the Man Booker Prize, for which all English-language novels became eligible in 2014.{{cite web|last=Masters|first= Tim|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37770363 |title=Man Booker Prize: Paul Beatty becomes first US winner for The Sellout|publisher= BBC News|date= October 26, 2016}}{{cite news|first=Charlotte|last=Higgins|author-link=Charlotte Higgins|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/26/man-booker-prize-winner-paul-beatty-the-sellout-interview|title=Turned down 18 times. Then Paul Beatty won the Booker …|newspaper=The Guardian|date=October 26, 2016}}

Beatty is a professor at Columbia University[https://arts.columbia.edu/profiles/paul-beatty Paul Beatty. Professor, Writing. Teaching Spring 2025.] Columbia University. Retrieved April 23, 2025. and has taught "Literature from Los Angeles" as part of the MFA writing program. Villalon, Oscar and Paul Beatty (June 4, 2018). [https://lithub.com/paul-beatty-on-los-angeles-lit-the-sellout-and-life-after-the-man-booker/ Paul Beatty on Los Angeles Lit, The Sellout, and Life After the Man Booker: In Conversation with Oscar Villalon.] Lit Hub. Retrieved April 23, 2025.

Personal

Beatty is married to filmmaker Althea Wasow,{{cite news |last=Millen |first=Robbie |title=I'm not advocating segregation I'm having fun pondering it |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/im-not-advocating-segregation-im-having-fun-pondering-it-gjvw73hr0 |work=The Times |url-access=subscription |date=October 25, 2016}} sister of BlackPlanet co-founder Omar Wasow.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eileenmwasow.com/page3|title = Bio}}

Awards and honors

2009: Creative Capital Award for Slumberland
2015: National Book Critics Circle Award (Fiction), winner for The Sellout.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/business/the-sellout-wins-national-book-critics-circles-fiction-award.html |title='The Sellout' Wins National Book Critics Circle's Fiction Award |work=The New York Times |author=Alter, Alexandra |date=March 17, 2016 |access-date=March 18, 2016}}
2016: Booker Prize winner for The Sellout.
2017: International Dublin Literary Award long-list for The Sellout

Works

=Poetry=

Big Bank Take Little Bank (1991). Nuyorican Poets Cafe Press. {{ISBN|0-9627842-7-3}}
Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994). {{ISBN|0-14-058723-3}}

=Fiction=

The White Boy Shuffle (1996). {{ISBN|0-312-28019-X}}
Tuff (2000). Alfred A. Knopf. {{ISBN|0-375-40122-9}}
Slumberland (2008). Bloomsbury USA, {{ISBN|978-1596912410}}
The Sellout (2015). New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. London: Oneworld Publications, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1786071477}} (hardback), 978-1786070159 (paperback)

=Edited volume=

Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor (2006). Bloomsbury USA. {{ISBN|978-1596911482}}

References

External links

Beatty, Paul, [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/books/review/22beatty.html "Black Humor"], The New York Times, January 22, 2006.
[http://authors.aalbc.com/paulbeatty.htm African American Literature Book Club for Paul Beatty]
[http://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm?book_number=2148 Excerpt from Slumberland at BookBrowse]
[http://www.full-stop.net/2015/06/30/interviews/max/paul-beatty/ Interview at Full Stop], June 30, 2015.
Gatti, Tom, [http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2016/11/paul-beatty-i-invented-richter-scale-racism "Paul Beatty: 'I invented a Richter scale for racism'"], New Statesman, November 2, 2016.

Category:1962 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:Writers from Los Angeles

Category:African-American novelists

Category:Booker Prize winners

Category:Brooklyn College alumni

Category:Boston University alumni

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Columbia University people

Category:21st-century American novelists