Pulitzer Prize-winning Novelist to Give Reading as Part of Holy Cross Visiting Writers Series

WORCESTER, Mass. – Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edward P. Jones ’72 will give a reading on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. in the Seelos Theater at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is part of the College’s Visiting Writers Lecture Series. Sponsored by the College’s Creative Writing Program, it is free and open to the public.

Jones, a New York Times bestselling author, received the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his novel The Known World (2003), a sprawling saga which examines the antebellum world of free blacks who owned black slaves.  The novel also received the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award.

Jones' debut collection of short stories, Lost in the City (1992), won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the National Book Award. The collection of short stories deals with African American working class and underclass experiences in mid-20th century, inner-city Washington, D.C.

His second collection, All Aunt Hagar’s Children (2006), was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. Similar to Lost in the City, it is a collection of short stories that deals with African Americans revolving around Washington, D.C.

In 2004, Jones received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his work and contribution to society.

Jones was one of about two dozen African American students who enrolled at Holy Cross during a racially tense time in the nation’s history. An English major while at Holy Cross he has taught fiction at Princeton University, George Mason University, and the University of Maryland.