Damon Young

Writer-in-Residence

Pittsburgh writer Damon Young's debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir In Essays (Ecco/HarperCollins), won the 2020 Thurber Prize for American Humor and Barnes & Noble's Discover Award. Damon is also a founder of the culture blog VerySmartBrothas, and was a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and a columnist for GQ. Currently, Damon is the creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast "Stuck With Damon Young" and is at work on multiple books, including an anthology on Black American humor and an essay collection tentatively titled The Rage of New Money.

    Awards
  • 2020 Thurber Prize for American Humor
  • 2019 Barnes and Noble Discover Award
  • NPR's Best Books of 2019
  • 2017 EBONY 100
  • 2017 The Root 100