About the Author

Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels "The Intuitionist," a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award; "John Henry Days," which won the Young Lions Fiction Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and "Apex Hides the Hurt," a "New York Times" Notable Book and winner of the PEN Oakland Award. He has also written a book of essays about his home town, "The Colossus of New York." A recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

"Whitehead's most enjoyable book--warm and funny, carefully observed, and beautifully written, studded with small moments of pain and epiphany....Whiehead seems to be having the time of his life; one can almost feel him relaxing into this book as if it actually were the summer home of his youth....The humor of 'Sag Harbor'--which reaches its apex in a scene involving seminal mid-'80s hip hop group UTFO's appearance at the local waffle cone emporium, where the rapper known as Dr. Ice provides some astute medical advice--is twinned by pain. It is Benji's uncertainty about everything that gives him such perspective, imbues even his most casual observations with a sheen of elegiac wisdom....tense, lush, poignant--'Sag Harbor' at its most satisfying."--"The Boston Globe"
"Sea-breeze buoyant....teasingly self-aware spirit.....hilariously trifling intricacies of this self-discovery process. Credit Mr. Whitehead with this: He captures the fire flies of teenage summertime in a jar....What's best about "Sag Harbor" is the utter and sometimes mortifying accuracy of its descriptive details....equally aware of the tiny nuances of teen culture....When this book's range encompasses kids, parents, community, tradition and history simultaneously, Mr. Whitehead's recovered memories don't seem so trivial after all." --Janet Maslin, "The New York Times"
"Whitehead's delicious language and sarcastic, clever voice fit this teenager who's slowly constructing himself....It's time for us to hear more post-black stories like this."-"The New York Times Book Review"
"In his ebullient, supremely confident fourth novel....offers such pleasures only a grump would complain....Debates and disquisitions about the timeless ephemera of pop culture appear in realistic proportion, and the resulting humor feels earned rather than easy, because of its thematic relevance and, above all, Whitehead's skill with voice and character....come off the page with energy and pathos." "San Diegom

"Whitehead's most enjoyable book--warm and funny, carefully observed, and beautifully written, studded with small moments of pain and epiphany....Whiehead seems to be having the time of his life; one can almost feel him relaxing into this book as if it actually were the summer home of his youth....The humor of 'Sag Harbor'--which reaches its apex in a scene involving seminal mid-'80s hip hop group UTFO's appearance at the local waffle cone emporium, where the rapper known as Dr. Ice provides some astute medical advice--is twinned by pain. It is Benji's uncertainty about everything that gives him such perspective, imbues even his most casual observations with a sheen of elegiac wisdom....tense, lush, poignant--'Sag Harbor' at its most satisfying."--"The Boston Globe"
"Sea-breeze buoyant....teasingly self-aware spirit.....hilariously trifling intricacies of this self-discovery process. Credit Mr. Whitehead with this: He captures the fire flies of teenage summertime in

Praise for "Sag Harbor"
"Pure shimmering brilliance. Colson Whitehead's affecting new novel joyously lights up a place, a time, a family, and one unforgettable young man. It is also one of the funniest books I've ever read, a book loaded with the kind of humor that can only soar off a heartbreaking sadness."
--Gary Shteyngart, author of "Absurdistan" and "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" Praise for Colson Whitehead
"Whitehead is making a strong case for a new name of his own: that of the best of the new generation of American novelists." --"Boston Globe"
"No novelist writing today is more engaging and entertaining when it comes to questions of race, class, and commercial culture than Colson Whitehead." --"USA Today"
"[Whitehead] takes on a multitude of issues with a rich and probing imagination. His reputation is likely to soar." --Ishmael Reed, "Washington Post Book World"
"[Whitehead] writes wonderfully, commanding a lush, poetic, mellifluous prose instrument." --"The Nation"

Praise for Colson Whitehead
"Whitehead is making a strong case for a new name of his own: that of the best of the new generation of American novelists." --"The Boston Globe
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"Whitehead [is] one of the city's and country's finest young writers." --"Chicago Tribune" "Does what writing should do; it refreshes our sense of the world. --John Updike," The New Yorker"