This contested memory has been the subject of countless artistic interpretations. The most famous and controversial is William Styron’s 1967 novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner . Styron, a white man, wrote the novel in the first-person voice of the rebel leader. The book won the Pulitzer Prize, but it also ignited a furious backlash. Ten Black writers responded in a collection titled William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond , accusing Styron of distorting history, defusing Turner’s sexuality, and portraying him as a “house nigger” who lusted after white women. The controversy forced a national conversation about who has the right to tell another person’s story, especially when it is steeped in racial trauma.