Columbia professor's book on white paint longlisted for National Book Award

Wendy S. Walters, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University, has been longlisted for the 2026 National Book Award in Nonfiction for her book, ‘A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint’.

Scheduled for release by Scribner on October 13, the book presents a polemic against the use of white paint in interior and exterior spaces. Walters argues that white paint is not a neutral material, but rather one that carries associations with purity, cleanliness, and power. She contends that these connotations tie into broader systems of exclusion, erasure, and the masking of power in social environments.

The publisher describes the work as an interrogation of the default color of the built environment, challenging the idea that the color is ‘unassailable and value-free.’