Darryl Pinckney facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Darryl Pinckney
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| Born | 1953 (age 71–72) Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) |
| Genre | Novelist, playwright |
| Notable works | High Cotton (1992) |
| Notable awards | Whiting Award (1986); Vursell Award for Distinguished Prose from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1994) |
| Partner | James Fenton |
Darryl Pinckney was born in 1953 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is an American novelist, playwright, and essayist. He writes about many topics, including African-American history and culture.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Darryl Pinckney grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. His family was African-American and middle-class. He went to public schools in his hometown. Later, he studied at Columbia University in New York City.
Writing Career
Pinckney started his career by writing for the theater. He worked with director Robert Wilson on several plays. These plays included The Forest (1988) and Orlando (1989). He later wrote another play called Time Rocker (1995).
His first novel was High Cotton, published in 1992. This book tells a story about growing up as a young Black person in the 1960s in America. His second novel, Black Deutschland, came out in 2016. It is about a young Black man living in Berlin in the late 1980s. This was just before the Berlin Wall came down.
Pinckney has also written many essays. These essays cover subjects like African-American literature, politics, and cultural issues. He often writes for well-known magazines. These include New York Review of Books, Granta, Slate, and The Nation. He often explores ideas about identity in his writing.
Awards and Recognition
Darryl Pinckney has received several awards for his writing:
- In 1986, he won a Whiting Award.
- His novel High Cotton won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction in 1992.
- In 1994, he received the Vursell Award for Distinguished Prose. This award came from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
- His memoir Come Back in September was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award in autobiography.
- Also in 2022, Come Back in September won the James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Personal Life
Darryl Pinckney lives with his long-time companion, English poet James Fenton. They have been together since 1989. Pinckney currently lives in New York City. He used to live with Fenton in Oxfordshire, England.
More Information
- Darryl Pinckney's official website: http://darrylpinckney.com/
- Darryl Pinckney at the New York Review of Books
- Profile at The Whiting Foundation
