Photograph by Devin Allen
D. Watkins is The New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Beast Side (2015), The Cook Up (2015), Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised (2021), Black Boy Smile (2022), and other books. His book We Speak for Ourselves (2018) was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection.
Watkins is Editor-at-Large for Salon. Additionally, he is a writer on the HBO mini-series We Own This City and host of the show’s companion podcast. He was also featured in the HBO documentary The Slow Hustle. His work has been published in The New York Times, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications.
Watkins is a college lecturer at the University of Baltimore, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. He also holds a Master of Education degree from Johns Hopkins University.
