Followers: 7K
Sample tweet: " 'White Flight' conjures up an exodus from the encroaching onyx horde. The truth is more elegant and more monstrous."
On Twitter and on his blog for the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates holds forth on everything from politics and sports to the arts and history. But rather than play the expert, he employs a deeply personal brand of punditry, always drawing insight from his own experience. Formerly of the Village Voice, the Washington City Paper and TIME, Coates earns bonus points for engaging with readers in the comments section and through @replies. The only bad thing about his Twitter feed is that its followers still number in the four digits.