Tuesday, April 20, 2010, 7pm, Music Building, $20

E d w a r d   P.   J o n e s  
with Leonard Lopate

Edward P. Jones is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He is the author of the collections of stories Lost in the City and All Aunt Hagar’s Children, as well as the novel The Known World. The Houston Chronicle has said: “Jones has woven nothing less than a tapestry of slavery, an artifact as vast and complex as anything to be found in the Louvre. Every thread is perfectly in place….Against all the evidence to the contrary that American fiction has given us over the past quarter-century, The Known World affirms that the novel does matter, that it can still speak to us as nothing else can.” John Casey has said: “Lost in the City is a book of extraordinary power and beauty. The stories are rich and various—some poignant, some grim, some wittily and ironically observed. But above all the book lights up its characters, in their virtues and their failings, with such exactness and sympathy that it is a gift of grace.” The Washington Times has said: “Stunning….Pitch-perfect….Too much cannot be said about Mr. Jones’ gifts as a storyteller and a stylist.” Newsday has described The Known World as “an exemplar of historical fiction…[it] will subdue your preconceptions, enrich your perceptions and trouble your sleep….The way Jones tells this story…recalls Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” Time magazine has described The Known World as “a masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon.”

In addition to reading from his work, Mr. Jones will be interviewed by Leonard Lopate.