Wideman, John Edgar

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).