Ta-Nehisi Coates

Many of us have known for years that Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of America’s most compelling and thoughtful voices. His timely, provocative and well-researched writings about race and this nation’s shameful history of inequality have been essential reading. The Atlantic published his widely distributed “The Case for Reparations” in 2014, and new audiences began to take notice. When his best-selling second book was released last summer, it seemed everyone came to understand that he is the real deal. Between the World and Me is brilliantly structured, insightful and forcefully argued. He navigates the complexities and burdens of race in America compassed by a father’s love for his son. But it’s the soulful writing that makes the work a classic, prompting Toni Morrison to herald Coates as America’s new James Baldwin and the MacArthur Foundation to announce his genius. He claimed the National Book Award for best nonfiction this year, but don’t think that this is the culmination of his work. He has much more to say, and we will all be the wiser for reading it.

Stevenson is the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative