Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books hosts a conversation with John Edgar Wideman

The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books (GPFB) premiered a conversation with internationally acclaimed Pittsburgh author John Edgar Wideman at 7pm on July 15 on our YouTube page!

Mr. Wideman, a native of Pittsburgh, is an internationally recognized  novelist, short story writer, memoirist, essayist and the first author to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. He was interviewed by University of Pittsburgh faculty Dr. Shaun Myers and Dr. Khirsten L. Scott, discussing his newest book, You Made Me Love You, a collection of the best of Wideman’s short stories over his fifty-year career.  “If the writing is good, it brings you into the story,” Mr. Wideman stated.  Many of the stories in the book involve the streets and people of Homewood, the Pittsburgh neighborhood where he grew up.  Others range far and wide across the United States and the world.  As Mr. Wideman shared, “We are houses of many rooms, of many shapes and sizes; and to realize that, all we have to do is listen to one another’s stories.”

Dr. Shaun Myers is Assistant Professor of English and affiliate faculty in the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.  Dr. Khirsten Scott is an Assistant Professor of English and Faculty Fellow at the University’s Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh.

“We are honored and excited to have the opportunity for this conversation with Mr. Wideman, a cherished and perceptive chronicler of the meanings of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods and history.  It is a perfect realization of our vision, through this festival, to celebrate Pittsburgh authors and communities--their experiences and their accomplishments”, said Marshall Cohen, Co-Chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books.  Laurie Moser, also Co-Chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books, stated that “We are delighted that Mr. Wideman is building on the Festival’s community of literacy.”

Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books partnered with Riverstone Books for this event discussing Mr. Wideman's latest book You Made Me Love You.