Renowned author Colson Whitehead will visit the University of 91吃瓜 on Oct. 3 (Tuesday) to deliver the at 5 p.m. in the Patricia George Decio Theatre of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
The annual lecture was created in 2009 to highlight justice issues and themes related to human dignity and the common good. , the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University, will introduce Whitehead.
The event is free and open to the public. Tickets will be available starting one hour beforehand at the box office of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
鈥淲hitehead is a perfect choice for the Bernie Clark Lecture,鈥� said , the Leo and Arlene Hawk Executive Director of the聽. 鈥淲hether he鈥檚 writing about the renaming of a New England town founded by Black settlers, a Black community in the Hamptons in the 1980s, or Harlem in the 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s, Whitehead鈥檚 novels show us communities where some of the deepest questions of dignity and justice are playing out in ways that are sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying and always revealing.鈥�
Whitehead is the author of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction. His most recent works include 鈥淭he Underground Railroad,鈥� 鈥淭he Nickel Boys,鈥� 鈥淗arlem Shuffle鈥� and 鈥淐rook Manifesto.鈥�
鈥淭he Underground Railroad,鈥� a novel published in summer 2016, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction and was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
Based on events at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida, Whitehead鈥檚 novel 鈥淭he Nickel Boys鈥� was published in 2019 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Kirkus Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Whitehead鈥檚 reviews, essays and fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper鈥檚 and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
In 2018, he was named New York State Author, and in 2020 the Library of Congress awarded him its Prize for American Fiction.
This year鈥檚 lecture is co-sponsored by the Catholic Social Tradition Minor; Department of Africana Studies; Department of American Studies; Department of Anthropology; Department of English; Department of Film, Television and Theatre; Department of History; Initiative on Race and Resilience; and the Office of the Provost.
Learn more at .