| 1 | Name: | Professor John Edgar Wideman | |
| Institution: | Brown University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2005 | ||
| Class: | 5. The Arts, Professions, and Leaders in Public & Private Affairs | ||
| Subdivision: | 501. Creative Artists | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1941 | ||
The author of twenty novels, over fifty short stories and numerous essays on literary theory and criticism, John Wideman received the 1996 James Fenimore Cooper Prize for historical writing. He is a two-time winner of the PEN-Faulkner Award (the only person to have done so twice) for his books Philadelphia Fire (1990) and Sent for You Yesterday (1983). His story "Weight" received the 2000 O. Henry Award for best short story, and the essay "Whose War" was included in The Best American Essays of 2003. His other prizes include a Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Grant, the Rea Prize for short fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Lannan Literary Award for fiction, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences' Katherine Anne Porter Award in Literature. Mr. Wideman is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and has served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania (1967-74), the University of Wyoming (1974-86), the University of Massachusetts (1986-2004) and Brown University (2004-), where he is Asa Messer Professor and Professor of Africana Studies and English. A graduate of Oxford University's New College (B.Ph., 1966), he was the second African American to receive a Rhodes Scholarship. His novel, Fanon (2008), is a part fictional, part biographical account tracing the life, message and legacy of Martiniquean revolutionary Frantz Fanon. He recently published a collection of short stories called American Histories (2018). | |||