Ta-Nehisi Coates was a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a writer, journalist, and educator. His writings on social, political, and cultural matters have appeared in several prestigious national periodicals, such as the Washington Post, Time, and the New Yorker.
The writing of Coates explores the complex themes of racial discrimination, urban policing, and racial identity in American culture. Most of his writings were related to the experience of African Americans.
This article deals with the bio, career, family, writings, and awards of Ta-Nehisi Coates. Keep on reading to know more about this American journalist.
Ta-Nehisi Coates – Early Life
Ta-Nehisi Coates was born as the son of Cheryl Waters and William Paul Coates on September 30, 1975. He was born and brought up in Baltimore, Maryland.
His father, William Paul Coates was a publisher who had been part of the Black Panther Party and the Vietnam War. he founded and managed the Black Classic Press, which specialized in books with African American themes. His mother, Cheryl Waters, worked as a teacher.
Along with his six siblings from his father’s four previous marriages, Coates was raised in Baltimore, Maryland’s Mondawmin area.
Cotes has stated that he spent his entire childhood living with his father and that his family focused on raising kids with values based on family, respect for elders, and contributing to their community. It was a philosophy that existed in the neighborhood he lived in regarding the upbringing of children
Ta-Nehisi Coates – Education
Before completing his high school graduation from Woodlawn High School, Coates attended several institutions in the Baltimore region, including Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and William H. Lemmel Middle School.
After five years of study, he left Howard University to pursue a career in Journalism. He is the only child in his family who never attended college. Coates went to Middlebury College’s intensive French course in the middle of 2014 to get ready for a writing fellowship in Paris.
Ta-Nehisi Coates – Career As A Journalist
Coates began his career as a journalist in The Washington City Paper as a correspondent. He had worked as a journalist for several periodicals since 2000, including Philadelphia Weekly, The Village Voice, and Time.
His journalism career was more established with the publication of his debut article for The Atlantic. That resulted in him getting into one of the most influential and popular blogs of The Atlantic.
Later on, Coates became the senior editor at The Atlantic, where he continued to write features for his blog. Politics, history, racism, sports, music, and culture were some of the subjects covered in the blog written by Coates.
After declining the offer to become a regular writer for New York Times, Coates has written as a guest columnist to them. After ten years with The Atlantics, Coates stepped down from his role as the national reporter in July 2018.
Ta-Nehisi Coates – As An Author
Coates was interested in literature from a very young age. His mother made him write essays as punishment for misbehavior, which influenced Coates to be a writer. Another significant reason was the influence of his father’s Black Classic Press, where he used to read a lot of books that his father wrote.
Coates began writing while working in The Atlantics and he published his first book The Beautiful Struggle in 2008.
Here’s a list of books that Coates has written.
- The Beautiful Struggle
The Beautiful Struggle was the first book that Coates wrote. It was a memoir about growing up in West Baltimore and its impacts on Coates which was published in 2008. In the book, he talks about his father’s influence on him, the street crimes that existed in Baltimore and how they affected his family, and his traumatic experience of attending schools in Baltimore.
- Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me was the second book of Coates published in July 2015. The book discussed themes of how physical factors like having their body used as slaves, slavery-related violence, and various institutional forms of racism physically impacted African-American life.
The book was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and received the 2015 National Book Award for Non-fiction.
- Black Panther
In 2016, Coates teamed up with Brian Stelfreeze to pen the sixth series of Marvel Comics’ Black Panther. He created the Black Panther and the Crew spinoff, which was canceled after six issues. Coates announced in 2018 that he would be writing the ninth book in the Captain American series.
- We Were Eight Years in Power
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy is a collection of Coates’ formerly published essays on the Obama era. It was published in 2017 by Random House. Along with the new essays that fill in the gaps between the previous essays, Coates also included an introduction and an epilogue.
- The Water Dancer
The Water Dancer was published in 2019 and it was the first novel and work of fiction written by Coates. It was a surrealist tale about a superhuman protagonist named Hiram Walker who possesses a superpower called conduction.
Ta-Nehisi Coates – As A Teacher
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Coats held the MLK visiting scholar for writing position from 2012 to 2014. He began working as a journalist-in-residence at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in late 2014.
Later, Coates joined the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute faculty at New York University. As a writer-in-residence in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University since 2021, Coates holds the Sterling Brown Chair in the English Department.
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Ta Nehisi Coates – Personal Life
Ta-Nehisi Coates met his wife, Kenyatta Matthews while studying at Howard University. The couple was later married and they had a son named Samori Maceo-Paul Coates. The family is supposed to be living in New York since 2009.
Ta Nehisi Coates – Awards And Recognitions
Coates began his professional career in 2008. As of 2023, The American Journalist has achieved many awards and recognitions. Here are the honors awarded by Coates since the beginning of his career.
- Hillman Prize in 2012 for Opinion and Analysis Journalism
- National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism in 2013.
- Visiting Fellowship of American Library in Paris in 2015.
- National Book Award for Non-fiction for his book Between the World and Me (2015)
- Kirkus Award 2015 for Nonfiction for Between the World and Me.
- Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2018 in Non-Fiction for the book We Were Eight Years in Power.
- Eisner Award 2018 for Best Limited Series, Black Panther: World of Wakanda
- British Fantasy Society Sydney J. Bounds Award 2020 for the book The Water Dancer.
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