Wanda's Picks Radio

Edward P. Jones is a New York Times bestselling author and has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World. His first novel The Known World is about the ownership of slaves by a black master in the antebellum South. Reviewers lauded Jones for the novel's epic grandeur, vernacular, and lyrical prose, fully realized characters, and lively dialogue. Comparing Jones favorably with William Faulkner and Toni Morrison. After winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Jones told Publisher's Weekly : "I want to write about the things which helped us to survive: the love, grace, intelligence, and strength for us as a people." Jones also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short-listed for the National Book Award. The stories recapture the life Jones knew growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, especially the rich vernacular of his mother and her associates. "I remember black people's poetic language," His second story collection, All Aunt Hagar’s Children, was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. He has been an instructor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C. 
                                                   
2. From the Archives: Rhodessa Jones talks about her work: "SHE:The Rhodessa Jones Story," which opened at Brava in SF, March 28-April 7, 2013.