Ta-Nehisi Coates met with a group of Cadet Writing Fellows on Tuesday, 17 April, for a conversation moderated by Dr. Jason Hoppe to discuss the processes and principles of writing as well as the specifics of Coates’s own work on race, family, and education. The author of several books, including Between the World and Me, the 2015 National Book Award winner in non-fiction, and most recently We Were Eight Years in Power, Coates is a regular contributor to The Atlantic and an influential and provocative public intellectual. In preparation for the visit, cadets and faculty met on multiple occasions to consider the implication of Coates’s contributions for future Army officers. Fellows also prepared as a gift written responses to Coates’s work by reflecting, as he does in Between the World and Me, on “the Dream.”
The event is part of the West Point Writing Program's speaker series, which brings to USMA distinguished writers from a variety of life experiences.