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John Edgar Wideman

Goodreads Author

Born

in Pittsburgh, PA, The United States

Website

http://www.lulu.com/johnedgarwideman

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Biographies & Memoirs

Member Since

March 2010

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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.

In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.

His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He 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 fr ...more

2 posts
John Edgar Wideman's Blog

An Interview about Self-Publishing

I recently sat down with Jonathan Cox at Lulu for an interview about why I chose to self-publish after 40+ years in the traditional publishing game. Here's an excerpt:

Jonathan's Introduction:
Our press release said it best: John Edgar Wideman is a literary lion. He has more than 20 traditionally published works to his name and a catalog of accolades — including two Faulkner Awards for Fiction. He h

Combine Editions
John Edgar Wideman’s books

Average rating: 3.99 · 11,061 ratings · 1,036 reviews · 79 distinct works • Similar authors

	Brothers and Keepers: A Memoir 3.87 avg rating — 1,100 ratings — published 1984 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Philadelphia Fire 3.44 avg rating — 842 ratings — published 1990 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File 3.39 avg rating — 440 ratings — published 2016 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	SENT FOR YOU YESTERDAY 4.01 avg rating — 343 ratings — published 1981 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	DAMBALLAH 4.14 avg rating — 223 ratings — published 1986 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Short Stories 1996 by John Edgar Wideman (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Katrina Kenison (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 3.86 avg rating — 165 ratings — published 1996 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fanon 3.36 avg rating — 182 ratings — published 2008 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	American Histories: Stories 3.48 avg rating — 159 ratings — published 2018 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cattle Killing 3.62 avg rating — 152 ratings — published 1996 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fever 3.81 avg rating — 138 ratings — published 1989 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by John Edgar Wideman…

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John is currently reading

Uncle Tom's Cabin

by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Mar 14, 2010 05:11PM

Quotes by John Edgar Wideman (?)

“Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.”
― John Edgar Wideman

tags: book-lovers, importance-of-words, insightful, writing-craft

33 likes

“Kids use words in ways that release hidden meanings, revel the history buried in sounds. They haven't forgotten that words can be more than signs, that words have magic, the power to be things, to point to themselves and materialize. With their back-formations, archaisms, their tendency to play the music in words--rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, repetition--children peel the skin from language. Words become incantatory. Open Sesame. Abracadabra. Perhaps a child will remember the word and will bring the walls tumbling down.”
― John Edgar Wideman

tags: brothers-and-keepers, children, language, words

10 likes

“All Stories are True.”
― John Edgar Wideman

tags: stories, truth

6 likes

See all John Edgar Wideman's quotes »

Polls

Here is the poll for our May group read, the theme is Historical Fiction written by Black Male Authors.

- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

23 votes, 53.5%

- Yonder by Jabari Asim

6 votes, 14.0%

- In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow

4 votes, 9.3%

- Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr.

4 votes, 9.3%

- Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin

3 votes, 7.0%

- Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman

1 vote, 2.3%

In West Mills (write-in)

1 vote, 2.3%

Freeman (write-in)

1 vote, 2.3%

43 total votes

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