John Edgar Wideman

John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941, in Washington, DC) is an American writer.

Early life

Wideman grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Writing and teaching career

A widely-celebrated writer and the winner of many literary awards, he is the first to win the International PEN/Faulkner Award twice: in 1984 for "Sent for You Yesterday" and in 1990 for "Philadelphia Fire". In 2000 he won the O. Henry Award for his short story "Weight", published in "The Callaloo Journal".

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 is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre.

He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University.

Family

In 1965 he married Judith Ann Goldman, an attorney, with whom he has three children: Daniel, Jacob, and Jamila. That marriage ended in divorce in 2000. In 2004 he married journalist Catherine Nedonchelle, and currently lives with her and her son, Romeo Alexander, on the Lower East Side.

Jamila Wideman later became a professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association and the Israeli League.

In 1988, his son Jacob was convicted of a 1986 murder in Flagstaff, Arizona. Jacob is currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life. Jacob committed the murder when he was under 18 years of age. He was transferred to adult prosecution in Arizona under rules of procedure in effect at the time. John Wideman addressed Jacob's circumstance in a book of short stories through a metaphorical story entitled "Casa Grande." John's brother Robbie was the centerpiece of "Brothers and Keepers". The book addressed the irony of John growing up to become a literary, academic, and sports leader; while Robbie was convicted of murder and, like John's son Jacob, is serving a life sentence in prison.

Major Works

Novels

* "A Glance Away", Harcourt (New York, NY), 1967.
* "Hurry Home", Harcourt (New York, NY), 1970.
* "The Lynchers", Harcourt (New York, NY), 1973.
* "Hiding Place", Avon (New York, NY), 1981.
* "Sent for You Yesterday", Avon (New York, NY), 1983.
* "Ruben", Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1987.
* "Philadelphia Fire", Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1990.
* "", Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1994.
* "The Cattle Killing", Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.
* "Two Cities", Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1998.
* "Fanon," Houghton Mifflin (2008)

Collections

* "Damballah", (short stories), Avon (New York, NY), 1981.
* "The Homewood Trilogy" (includes "Damballah", "Hiding Place" and "Sent for You Yesterday"), Avon (New York, NY), 1985.
* "Fever" (short stories), Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1989.
* "The Stories of John Edgar Wideman", Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 1992, published as "All Stories Are True", Vintage Books (New York, NY), 1993.
* "God's Gym" (short stories), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005.

Memoirs and other

* "Brothers and Keepers" (memoir), Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1984.
* "Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society", Pantheon (New York, NY), 1994.
* (With Bonnie TuSmith) "Conversations with John Edgar Wideman", University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1998.
* "Hoop Roots: Basketball, Race, and Love" (memoir), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.
* (Editor) "My Soul Has Grown Deep: Classics of Early African-American Literature", Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2001.
* (Editor) "20: The Best of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize", University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2001.

References

Source: Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2005.

External links

*WiredForBooks|johnwideman|1989 Audio Interview with John Edgar Wideman - RealAudio