Writer's Reading John Edgar Wideman

John Edgar Wideman is the first writer to win the PEN/Faulkner Award twice, in 1984 for Sent for You Yesterday and in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire.

The award-winning author reads from his work at this evening's program, which is part of the President and Provost's 2006-2007 Diversity Lecture and Cultural Arts Series. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1993, he currently teaches at Brown University. His most recent book is God’s Gym (2005).

Cosponsored by Ohio State’s Creative Writing Program, Department of English, Office of the President, and Office of Minority Affairs. Wideman was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team, and studied philosophy as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. In addition to his tenure at Brown, he has taught at numerous other universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department. His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He was awarded an O'Henry Award for best short story of the year in 2000 and the Rea Prize for short fiction in 1998. His story "What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence," included in God’s Gym (2005), his twentieth book, was chosen for The Best American Short Stories 2004.