Nell Irvin Painter is the author of nine books, including the New York Times bestseller The History of White People and the National Critics Circle finalist Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of American Historians, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Guggenheim Foundation, she has received honorary degrees from institutions such as Yale, Wesleyan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Dartmouth and has served as president of the Organization of American Historians and the Southern Historical Association. After earning her Ph.D. in history from Harvard, she earned degrees in painting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and the Rhode Island School of Design.
In 2024, Doubleday published her essay collection I Just Keep Talking, named one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Kirkus Reviews. She is working on a new book on Sojourner Truth, entitled Sojourner Truth Was a New Yorker, and She Didn’t Say That. This new biographical study includes a chapter on Sojourner Truth as a knitter. Professor Painter is the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Winner for 2026.
In recognition of her long record of outstanding work, the Society of American Historians is pleased to honor Nell Irvin Painter with the Tony Horwitz Prize.