Wil Haygood

writer, Washington Post

Wil Haygood spent nearly 20 years traveling around the world to conduct research and write what has now been called an acclaimed trilogy of African American lives. Criticis have hailed the author of *King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.*, *In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr.*, and *Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson*, for what they proclaim to be the "cultural importance" he brings to these biographies. *King of the Cats* was a New York Times Notable Book. *In Black and White* received the Richard Wright-Zora Neale Hurston Legacy Award, the ASCAP Deems Taylor Outstanding Music Biography Award, and the Nonfiction Book of the Year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. *Sweet Thunder*, published in 2009, was named *One of the best books of the Fall Literary Season* by *The New York Post*. Haygood was born in Columbus, Ohio, and is a graduate of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He was a national and foreign correspondent for *The Boston Globe* for 17 years. In 2002 he joined *The Washington Post*. He has received writing fellowships from the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the James Thurber Foundation. Among his journalism honors are the Sunday Magazine Editors Award, the Missouri Journalism Award, the New England Associated Press Award, the National Headliners Award, the National Association of Black Journalists Award for feature writing. He has also been a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Haygood has been Visiting Writer-Lecturer at Colorado College, Vanderbilt University, the University of Georgia, and the Ohio State University. He resides in Washington, D.C.