Thomas Chatterton Williams (born March 26, 1981) is an American cultural critic and author.Thomas Chatterton Williams
Penguin Random House author page. Retrieved November 19, 2019. He is the author of the 2019 book ''

Self-Portrait in Black and White ''Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race'' is a 2019 book by Thomas Chatterton Williams. It was published by W. W. Norton & Company on October 15, 2019. Thesis Thomas, the son of a black father and a white mother, who grew up identify ...

'' and a contributing writer at
The Atlantic
'. He is a visiting professor of the humanities and senior fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

, and a 2022

Guggenheim fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

. Formerly, Thomas was a contributing writer at
The New York Times Magazine
' and an Easy Chair columnist for
Harper's Magazine
''

Early life and education

Thomas Chatterton Williams was born on March 26, 1981, in

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

to a black father, Clarence Williams, and a white mother, Kathleen. Named after the English poet

Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Althoug ...

, he was raised in

Fanwood, New Jersey Fanwood is a borough in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,774, an increase of 456 (+6.2%) from the 2010 census count of 7,318, which in turn reflected an increa ...

, and attended

Union Catholic Regional High School Union Catholic Regional High School is a private Catholic high school located in Scotch Plains, in Union County, New Jersey, United States. Its motto promises to provide a "quality education in a faith-based environment." Founded in 1962 as se ...

in Scotch Plains. Williams graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He also completed a master's degree from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

's Cultural Reporting and Criticism program.

Career

In 2010, Williams released his first book, ''Losing My Cool: How a Father's Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture''. The book is a coming-of-age memoir, mirroring the author's childhood and adolescence in New Jersey to his father's experience in the segregated South. Williams released his second book, '' Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race'', on October 15, 2019. He became a 2019 New America Fellow and a Berlin Prize recipient. In 2020, Williams wrote the initial draft of "

A Letter on Justice and Open Debate "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate", also known as the ''Harper's'' Letter, is an open letter defending free speech published on the ''Harper's Magazine'' website on July 7, 2020, with 153 signatories, criticizing what it called "illiberalism" ...

", an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

in ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', signed by 152 public figures. It criticized what the letter argued was a culture of "intolerance of opposing views". Williams is now a contributing writer at
The Atlantic
'' a visiting professor of the humanities and senior fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at

, and a 2022

. Formerly, Williams was a contributing writer at ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

'' and at ''

''.

Personal life

Williams married French journalist and author Valentine Faure in France in 2011. He lives in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, with Faure and their two children.

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

* 1981 births Living people 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people African-American journalists African-American non-fiction writers American expatriates in France American literary critics American male journalists Berlin Prize recipients Georgetown College (Georgetown University) alumni New York University alumni People from Fanwood, New Jersey Union Catholic Regional High School alumni Writers from Newark, New Jersey Writers from Paris {{US-writer-stub