Colson Whitehead Picture: Madeline Whitehead/www.colsonwhitehead.com
Writer Colson Whitehead has won 2017’s Pulitzer Prize for The Underground Railroad, a bestselling novel that melds a young girl’s escape from slavery with elements of fantasy. This The Harvard graduate’s sixth novel has seen considerable success, both critically and in terms of sales. It was picked as part of Oprah’s Book Club and was also selected by former president Barack Obama as one of five books on his summer reading list. This year, it was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. The Underground Railroad will be made into an hour long limited series for Amazon, directed by this year’s Oscar-winning Best Director, Barry Jenkins
