Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates was born on September 30, 1975, in Baltimore, Maryland, to a family with deep roots in African American intellectual and activist tradition. His father, William Paul Coates, was a Vietnam War veteran, former Black Panther, and founder of Black Classic Press. Coates attended Howard University but left without a degree, instead pursuing a career in journalism. He rose to national prominence as a national correspondent for The Atlantic, where his essays on race, history, and white supremacy reached a vast readership. His 2014 cover story 'The Case for Reparations' reignited American debate on the subject and won the George Polk Award. His book Between the World and Me (2015), written as a letter to his teenage son about growing up Black in America, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and became a number one New York Times bestseller. Coates also wrote the acclaimed Black Panther and Captain America comic series for Marvel. His debut novel, The Water Dancer (2019), was an Oprah's Book Club selection. In 2015 he received a MacArthur Fellowship. He has taught at MIT, CUNY, New York University, and Howard University, where he holds the Sterling Brown chair in the English Department.