you are on the colson whitehead. >> caller: good afternoon, mr. colson whitehead.question, have you considered writing drama, either for stage or media, cinema? >> host: thank you. >> guest: thanks, morgan. i did -- i went to harvard for undergrad in the conservative english department. they had one class, american fiction after 1945 basically. i did study drama. i took classes in the african-american studies department and the drama department. i didn't act, but i studied plays. i think dialogue is kind of reactive structure is important in my work. in times where i needed money, i thought do i want to teach, they be write a screenplay -- on a screenplay i got three pages in and thought this sucks come i will have to write a novel. so i ended up going back to fiction. but i grew up on tv and film coming into those mediums are important to me. i thought a lot of ideas from film. one comes from science fiction and art in the 70s. i was a tv critic, but i could to fiction and nonfiction but i don't really have the chops to leave those two genres. >> host: is "the und

handmaid's tale," "the guns of august," "a brief history of seven killings" underground railroad by colson whitehead >> host: "the handmaid's tal tale"? >> guest: with an imagination. i'm going to guess many people have seen the series on cable television, which i think is okay. the book is so chilling .-full-stop your heart. it's about a patriarchy that dominates women. it's about the ultimate authoritarian state. it's deeply moving, beautifully written. every year when the nobel prize for literature is announced, i'd wake up hoping that it's going to be margaret atwood because of the scope ofof her imagination. she's won the booker prize twice, and i think it is among the greatest of living writers. she's canadian by the way. the handmaid's tale is the ultimate cautionary tale for the time about the endgame of an authoritarian state. it's a beautiful book. >> host: currently reading the splendid and the file, but look at winston churchill's leadership during the london blitz, the class hotel they can only saint john and fred dressed in black and white by elliott ackerman who is the co-author of hi

colson whitehead, nick stone, angie thomas, to broaden it to writers of different colors, celeste king and christina enriquez and, you know, i can go on and on and on. i will decline, however, as trying to puck my comp because, i mean, i'm telling you, when i read a book like the mothers by brooke bennett who was this amazing african-american female author who blew me away with her book last year, she's younger than i am, and i wouldn't even begin to say, oh, your first book was as good as that one. i would never do that. i would be worried to put myself in competition with white colors versus authors of color. i'm really grateful that there are so many authors of color who i get to read. i remember coulson whitehead had been on social media talking about the fact that he had a new book coming out, and boom, i ordered out the minute he announced that. again i say all the time and i maintain if you look at your book shelf and you are not reading authors of color, you are not only missing out on some incredible stories, but you are not broadening your mind. >> host: now, i have to do a q