We are pleased to join Illinois Libraries Present in kicking off our third season with two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys, The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and a collection of essays, Whitehead is only the fourth writer to win two Pulitzers in the Fiction category (for Underground Railroad in 2018 and The Nickel Boys in 2020). His latest, 2023's Crook Manifesto, is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family.

His reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. Whitehead has received a MacArthur Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship, the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, among many others. He has taught at University of Houston, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, New York University, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and been a Writer-in-Residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and University of Wyoming. He lives in New York City.

Whitehead will be joined in conversation with award-winning author Tochi Onyebuchi. His books include Goliath, Riot Baby, the Beasts Made of Night series, the War Girls series, and (S)kinfolk.

REGISTER HERE

This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. ILP is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library. 

To request accommodations, please email illinoislibrariespresent@gmail.com