A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2026

"An interrogation [of] our culture and our relationship to the color white...more than just 'don't use white paint,' it's about how the color white has become a language in and of itself that signifies a lot of things to different audiences." —NPR, "Here and Now"

"I am eager to read A Dead White, in which one of our best essayists sets her keen eye to the seeping ubiquity of white paint, from art and architecture to politics and pop culture…What does its constant coloring (or uncoloring) of our lives say about how we see ourselves (or don’t, as the case may be)." —LitHub

"An engaging, erudite experiment...each example [Walters] contends with is masterfully described and meaningful in its own right...Recursive yet resounding, a carefully curated aesthetic journey." —Kirkus Reviews

"In Wendy S. Walters' brilliant A Dead White, white paint becomes a dynamic prism for fathoming the world. In a testament to her prodigious gifts, Walters crafted a hybrid that is both deeply personal and captivatingly intellectual; both a keen meditation and engrossing journey. This daring book makes an ultra-convincing case for the boons of close attention and the profits of pursuing discernment." —Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math

"White paint is a powerful aesthetic force hiding in plain sight. In A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint, Wendy S. Walters—essayist, curator, and cultural critic—dismantles our collective faith in white as neutral, tracing its influence in art, architecture, design, and domestic life. Along the way she reveals the values embedded in what we've been taught to see as a blank slate. Part polemic, part meditation, by turns personal and philosophical, and entirely original, this is the rare work of criticism that will change how you see the world around you." —Meghan O'Rourke, author of The Invisible Kingdom

"What happens when an object or material you’ve been taking for granted suddenly stops looking normal and benign?  Why does it—in this case the white paint on the walls of your son’s school—unsettle you? This could be the start of an intricate procedural or horror tale. But Wendy S. Walters is an intrepid and original cultural critic, and for her white paint never stops generating literal and fiercely symbolic meanings. Walters uses her investigative tools to probe history, aesthetics, science, politics, and her own life. Detectives provide solutions; critics offer revelations.  How exhilarating to be shown that nothing in our physical world must be ignored or unquestioned. Design, decoration, school, home, cityscape, landscape: they are not backgrounds in our lives. They are main characters." —Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland and Constructing a Nervous System

"White, like a metronome on the lips. What Walters crafts is something architectural, underscoring the sonic resonance of language. The acceptance trained into us through rhythm, familiarity, repetition, and habituality. White, its sound and image haunt the page. White house. White paint. White light. White torture. White painter. The sight of the word is percussive and accumulative. It gains momentum as the work unravels. Remaking our perception, our ability to just allow, go along, and not question.

The beauty of this book is the writing, its force acute. And yet, its impact lies dormant until the end. Something soft slowly rendered into sharp focus. Waiting, until each stone overturned, until every corner questioned, until the last echo in our ears is white, how strange and satisfying its subversion. If only every artist dug this deep." —Sable Elyse Smith, artist

"Part cultural investigation, part personal reckoning, A Dead White transforms what we have been instructed to see as a neutral ordinary into a complex site of inquiry. It challenges us to look again at the walls around us and consider the ways the aesthetics of whiteness shapes our ideas of value, belonging, and the world itself." —Legacy Russell, author of Black Meme

"Like many of the most potent books, this one first appears obsessive and hyper-focused, but it audaciously expands into wider universes as it explores a ubiquitous color choice that structures everything from domestic life to art to the architectures of work. Wendy S. Walters is a sharp observer, a nimble theorist, and a magnificent writer: I’ll never look at white paint the same way again."  —Julia Bryan-Wilson, art historian and author of Louise Nevelson’s Sculpture: Drag, Color, Join, Face