Les Payne

Les Payne reported and edited for Newsday across a career of nearly four decades, becoming known for investigative journalism and commentary. He helped found the National Association of Black Journalists and contributed to the Newsday project that received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Beginning in 1990, Payne sought firsthand recollections from Malcolm X's siblings, classmates, associates, political contemporaries, and members of the Nation of Islam. That research eventually produced over one hundred hours of interviews. After Payne's death in 2018, his daughter and principal researcher, Tamara Payne, completed the manuscript. The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X is therefore credited to Les Payne and Tamara Payne. Published by Liveright, it won the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.