Colson Whitehead was born in 1969. He graduated from Harvard College and worked at the Village Voice writing reviews of television, books, and music. His first novel, The Intuitionist, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway and a winner of the Quality Paperback Book Clubs New Voices Award. John Henry Days (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. The novel received the Young Lions Fiction Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The Colossus of New York (2003) is a book of essays and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Apex Hides the Hurt (2006) was a recipient of the PEN/Oakland Award. Sag Harbor (2009) was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award. Colson Whiteheads reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications including the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harpers and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.