Beatty, Paul (1962-…), is an African American novelist and poet. Beatty has gained international critical praise for his sharply satirical explorations of modern society and pop culture. Beatty’s works humorously examine such sensitive topics as civil rights, relations between Black and white people and between fathers and sons, the and racial prejudice.
In 2016, Beatty received the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout (2015). The award, now called the Booker Prize, is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary award. Beatty was the first American to win the prize. The Sellout comically describes how a Black urban farmer attempts to revive slavery and segregation in Dickens, a fictional impoverished Los Angeles, California, suburb.
Beatty’s first novel, White Boy Shuffle (1996), follows the experiences of an African American boy trying to adjust to living in a Black neighborhood in Los Angeles after growing up in a mostly white California town. His second novel, Tuff (2000), describes how a young man living in Spanish Harlem in New York City, New York, moves from a life of crime to becoming a candidate for city council. Slumberland (2008), Beatty’s next novel, deals with a Los Angeles disc jockey who travels to Berlin, Germany, seeking his spiritual soul mate.
Beatty was born on June 9, 1962, in Los Angeles. He studied psychology at Boston University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 and a Master of Arts degree in 1987. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Brooklyn College in 1989. Beatty first gained recognition as a poet, often writing in a hip-hop style. His poems have been collected in Big Bank Take Little Bank (1991) and Joker, Joker, Deuce (1994). Beatty also edited Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor (2006).
