[ultrasaurus]

Ta-nehisi Coates is one of the most interesting authors at the Atlantic (he's also the first african-american editor there since Booker T Washington, if memory serves). His childhood growing up with a mishmash of his half-siblings and getting into fights contrasts so much with the standard upper-class childhood that tends to get one into long-form journalism.

[jtolle]

Plus he's the only "mainstream" author I know of who regularly uses D&D/gaming references while making "serious" points, which is awesome. I just love this: "Inducing them, and those in between, to change class, to trade their plate for robes, to trade the broad-sword for a spell-book, is the real work."