John Edgar Wideman

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

1 Early life
2 Writing and teaching career
3 Family
4 Major Works
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early life

Wideman grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 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.

[edit] 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.

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.

[edit] 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 was remarried to 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 Arizona. He is currently serving a life sentence.

[edit] Major Works

[edit] 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.
Reuben, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1987.
Philadelphia Fire, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1990.
A Glance Away, Hurry Home, and The Lynchers: Three Early Novels by John Edgar Wideman, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1994.
The Cattle Killing, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.
Two Cities, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1998.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Memoirs and other

Brothers and Keepers, (memoirs), Henry Holt (New York, NY), 1984.
Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1994.
(With Mumia Abu-Jamal) Live from Death Row, Addison Wesley (New York, NY), 1995.
(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.