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John Edgar Wideman

Biography

John Edgar Wideman

John Edgar Wideman’s books include, among others, AMERICAN HISTORIES, WRITING TO SAVE A LIFE, BROTHERS AND KEEPERS, PHILADELPHIA FIRE, FATHERALONG, HOOP ROOTS and SENT FOR YOU YESTERDAY. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. He divides his time between New York and France.

John Edgar Wideman

Books by John Edgar Wideman

by John Edgar Wideman - Fiction, Short Stories

In LOOK FOR ME AND I'LL BE GONE, his sixth collection of stories, John Edgar Wideman imbues with energy and life the concerns that have consistently infused his fiction and nonfiction. How does it feel to grow up in America, a nation that encourages (sometimes unwittingly, but often on purpose) its citizens to see themselves as colored or white, as inferior or superior? The story “Separation” begins with a boy afraid to stand alone beside his grandfather’s coffin, then wends its way back and forth from Pittsburgh to ancient Sumer. “Atlanta Murders” starts with two chickens crossing a road and becomes a dark riff, contemplating “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” James Baldwin’s report on the 1979-1981 child murders in Atlanta, Georgia.

by John Edgar Wideman - Fiction, Short Stories

When John Edgar Wideman won the PEN Malamud Award in 2019, he joined a list of esteemed writers --- from Eudora Welty to George Saunders --- all of whom are acknowledged masters of the short story. Wideman’s commitment to short fiction has been lifelong, and here he gathers a representative selection from throughout his career, stories that challenge what defines, separates and unites us; dare to push form and defy convention; and, to quote Wideman, seek to “deconstruct the given formulas of African American culture and life.”