CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Colson Whitehead Wins The Pulitzer For Fiction

Colson Whitehead, the author of The Underground Railroad, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for this award-winning work about slavery. The commendation from the Pulitzer jury says Mr. Whitehead's win was:

For a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America.

Whitehead, 47, had previously won the MacArthur "genius" grant (in 2002) as well as a Guggenheim fellowship.  The Underground Railroad also won this year's National Book award.

There has been an announcement that Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director of this year's Best Picture, Moonlight, will adapt the book into a limited series for Amazon.