From W-H-Y-Y in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend, I'm Sam Brigger.

Today, Colson Whitehead, after writing two Pulitzer Prize-winning novels, The Underground

Railroad and The Nickel Boys, he started writing crime novels set in Harlem.

His new one, Crook Manifesto, is an entertaining read about crime at every level, from small

time crooks to revolutionaries, cops, politicians, and Harlem's elite.

Although we hear from crime writer S.A. Cosby, his new novel is about the first black sheriff

in the southeast Virginia County, where the high school is named after Jefferson Davis,

and there's a statue of a Confederate soldier outside the courthouse.

The sheriff is trying to stop a serial killer, who's been praying on black children, while

trying to control growing racial tensions, as a group of white supremacists plan a local

march.

That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.

This is Fresh Air Weekend, I'm Sam Brigger.

Terry has our first interview, I'll let her introduce it.

My guest, Colson Whitehead, won Pulitzer Prizes for two consecutive novels.

The first Pulitzer was for The Underground Railroad, an allegory about race in America

told through the stories of an escaped slave and a slave catcher.

It was adapted into an Amazon series.

The second Pulitzer was for The Nickel Boys, based on the true story of his segregated

state reform school for boys, in which the boys were physically abused and dozens died.

A film adaptation, starring Anjaneu Ellis, is in the works.

After writing about those grim subjects, Whitehead started writing crime novels, said in

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