Wideman, John Edgar

(born June 14, 1941, Washington, D.C., U.S.) U.S. writer and educator. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania he became the second African American to receive a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. He published his first novel, A Glance Away, in 1967. His first work of nonfiction was the acclaimed Brothers and Keepers (1984), in which he examines his relationship with his brother, who is serving a life sentence in prison. He won PEN/Faulkner Awards for Sent for You Yesterday (1983) and Philadelphia Fire (1990), a fictional account of the bombing of the militant black group MOVE combined with an examination of his relationship with his son, now in prison.

Wideman, John Edgar (1941– ) writer; born in Washington, D.C. He earned degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford University, England (where he was a Rhodes Scholar), then attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He taught at the Universities of Pennsylvania (1966–74), Wyoming (1974–85) and Massachusetts (1986). His complex and literate fiction often drew on the African-American urban culture of his youth, and includes Hurry Home (1970), The Lynchers (1973), Sent for You Yesterday (1983, P.E.N./Faulkner Award for fiction), Philadelphia Fire (1990, P.E.N./Faulkner Award) and Stories (1992). He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant (1993).