Soraya Nadia McDonald is an American writer and culture critic. She was previously a reporter at The Washington Post, and has been the culture critic for The Undefeated since 2016. McDonald was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.^[1][2]

McDonald was raised in North Carolina.^[3] Her father is African American and her mother is a Sephardic Jew, born in Suriname and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.^[4] McDonald received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University,^[5][6] during which she interned for the high school sports desk at The Washington Post. She returned to the Post after graduation as a staff reporter^[3] and left in January 2016 to work as the senior culture writer for The Undefeated.^[5]

McDonald's writing covers pop culture, sports, race, gender, and sexuality.^[1] She frequently focuses her criticism on the intersection of art and race and has written on topics such as the weaknesses of a post-racial Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale,^[7] and the racial anxiety of BlackAF.^[8] McDonald often critiques the nature of American theater's engagement with the topic of race^[9] and has written about shows such as Choir Boy, White Noise, and Slave Play.^[10] On May 4, 2020, she was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.^[2] McDonald appeared on the podcast Storybound in 2021 to read one of the essays that earned her nomination, Wandering In Search of Wakanda, with music sampled from Marco Pavé.^[11]

McDonald is also a commentator on current events such as the implications of racial disparities in COVID-19 cases.^[12] Her work has appeared in and been cited in books and journalistic outlets such as NPR, Vox, and Elle.^[13][14][15]

In 2020, she contributed a chapter to the volume Believe Me edited by Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman.^[16]

• 2020 - George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, Winner^[17]
• 2020 - Vernon Jarrett Medal, Runner up, Morgan State University^[1]
• 2020 - Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, Finalist^[2]