Baker Artist Portfolios

D. Watkins is the New York Times bestselling author of The Beast Side, The Cook Up, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, Black Boy Smile, and other books. His book We Speak for Ourselves was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection.

Some of Watkins’ awards include the James Beard Media Award, Los Angeles Press Club Award, Gordon Park Fellowship, Pratt Library Hackerman Writer Fellowship, Vernon Jarrett “Medal of Journalistic Excellence, Society of Professional Journalists “Dateline Award for Commentary,” Gold Signal Award, Johns Hopkins University “Society of Scholars,” Johns Hopkins University “Distinguished Alumnus Award,” City Lit “Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts,” and the Maryland Library Association’s “William Wilson Maryland Author Award.

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, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and other publications.
Watkins is a professor 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.

Watkins lives in Baltimore with his wife and daughter.