Colson Whitehead

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Prairie Lights presents Colson Whitehead at The Englert Theatre. Please join us for this FREE event with New York Times Bestselling author Colson Whitehead. He will read from and talk about his new novel, The Underground Railroad which has been selected for Oprah’s Book Club. The novel manages to feel historical yet contemporary as a young slave, 15-year-old Cora, flees the antebellum South. Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day.

Colson Whitehead is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is the author of The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, Sag Harbor, Zone One, The Colossus of New York, and The Noble Hustle. The Underground Railroad is a finalist for this year’s National Book Award. Prairie Lights encourages everyone to come to this momentous reading with one of the great writers of our time. Books will be available for purchase, and Colson Whitehead will be happy to sign books purchased at the event or from Prairie Lights. Every book purchase helps Prairie Lights bring great authors to Iowa City!