When Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward P. Jones spoke in Lee Hall Ballroom in February, one UMW student wanted his advice for aspiring writers. “Read, read and read,” he told the young woman.
But Jones might have been preaching to the choir. The standing-room-only crowd held many avid readers, most of them fans of Jones’ 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner, The Known World. Jones set the novel in antebellum Virginia in the fictitious Manchester County. In it, he weaves together the lives of Virginia slaveholders – some of whom were African American – with the lives of the enslaved to explore the culture of the American South.
When he visited Mary Washington, Jones read excerpts from The Known World, answered questions and signed books. He visited UMW as part of its celebration of Black History Month.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Jones attended public schools, studied at Holy Cross College, and earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Virginia. Jones’ first book, Lost in the City, was published in 1992 and won the Pen/Hemingway Award. The book was short-listed for the National Book Award, which Jones won for his second book, The Known World, which also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Jones is a 2004 MacArthur
Fellow, and he has taught creative writing at the University of Virginia, George Mason University, the University of Maryland and Princeton University.
– Neva S. Trenis