Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates (born September 30, 1975) is an American writer of essays, fiction and non-fiction books, and comic books. The name Ta-Nehisi is Ancient Egyptian for "land of Nubia" (nḥsy). It is pronounced Ta-ne-Ha'-si.
Coates was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. His father was a Vietnam War veteran and a member of the Black Panthers, as well as a publisher and librarian, and his mother was a teacher. From an early age, Coates was an avid reader, consuming everything from history and biography to fiction and comic books.
He became known to the rest of America when he started writing for The Atlantic magazine. He was known for being able to talk about European history, blogging about the Thirty Years' War and Postwar European reconstruction, comic books and other nerd passions (namely cartoons, superhero movies, and comics) as well as seriously intensive and well researched journalistic articles and exposes, focusing primarily on African-American history and race relations.
In 2016, he began an acclaimed run on Black Panther for Marvel Comics, which spawned several spin-offs & and partially inspired aspects of the blockbuster film of the same name. Coates continued his Marvel streak with the 2018 relaunch of Captain America, with a rumored take on Storm in the works.
Selected bibliography:
Fiction:
- The Water Dancer (2019)
Non-fiction:
- The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood (2008)
- "The Case for Reparations" (2014)
- Between the World and Me: Notes on the First 150 Years in America (2015)
- We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy (2017)
Comic books:
- Black Panther (2016–21)
- Black Panther: World of Wakanda (with Roxane Gay; 2016–17)
- Black Panther & The Crew (2017)
- Rise of the Black Panter (with Evan Narcisse; 2018)
- Captain America (2018–21)
He provides examples of:
- Development Hell: In February 2021, he was announced as writer on a potential Superman film project, to be produced by J. J. Abrams. Nothing has moved forward on that project, it might even have been cancelled when Warner Bros. Discovery restructured its DC Comics media under DC Studios. CEO and chairman James Gunn has since confirmed that the project is still in development as of 2024.
- Promoted Fanboy: He went from reading Black Panther and Captain America as a kid to eventually writing both of their flagship titles for Marvel.
