New beginnings for 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Morris – film critic at Grantland. Next to Armond White, both gents are 2 of the most prominent and widely-read African American film critics working today.

Morris has been named critic at large covering all things cultural for The Gray Lady, also known as the The New York Times.

“As a critic at large in Culture, Wesley will occupy a newly created position allowing him to write essays and criticism across multiple disciplines and to respond to cultural moments as they unfold,” Danielle Mattoon, the Times‘ culture editor, wrote.

Mr. Morris, who is 39, has worked at Grantland since 2013, where he wrote incisively about film and TV primarily. Prior to that, he worked for 10 years as a film critic for The Boston Globe, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism.

“With an inexhaustible enthusiasm for and command of contemporary culture, he brings a fan’s heart and a critic’s mind to everything from pop stars to film directors,” Ms. Mattoon added.

Mr. Morris will write both for the newspaper and for the Times Magazine, once he starts his new post on October 19.

Congratulations to Wesley Morris, with whom I’m had a few exchanges on Twitter, although we’ve never met! I’m definitely a fan of his work.

As the Pulitzer committee wrote when they honored him, he was deserving “for his smart, inventive film criticism, distinguished by pinpoint prose and an easy traverse between the art house and the big-screen box office.” His love of film, spot-on observations, wit, imagination, and passion all come out in what he writes. Read his "Race to the Top: The Meaning of ‘Key and Peele’" as one very recent example.

Wesley Morris

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