NEW YORK – Colson Whitehead became the rare author to receive Pulitzers for consecutive books when his novel about a brutal Florida reform school during the Jim Crow era, “The Nickel Boys,” was awarded the fiction prize Monday.
Three years ago, he won for his Civil War era novel “The Underground Railroad.” Pulitzer judges praised “The Nickel Boys” as “a spare and devastating exploration of abuse” that is “ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption.” Whitehead, 50, is known for his experimental narratives and immersion in American history and folklore.
His previous works include “John Henry Days” and “The Intuitionist.” William Faulkner and John Updike are among the previous fiction writers to win more than one