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Presidential Lecture Series

Supplemental resources for the Presidential Lecture Series.

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“The way he saw it, living taught you that you didn’t have to live the way you’d been taught to live. You came from one place but more important was where you decided to go.”
― Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

About the Speaker: Colson Whitehead

A headshot of Colson Whitehead in full color depicts a man in a black leather jacket and light colored shirt pensively looking into the distance on the right while leaning on top of a white box against a light blue-grey background.Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead's reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper's and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. In 2018, New York State named him their New York State Author, and in 2020 the Library of Congress awarded him their Prize for American Fiction. He has taught at the 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 the University of Wyoming. Apparently he can’t keep a job. He lives in New York City.

Colson Whitehead: The Event

Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, spoke during the third installment of Creighton's Presidential Lecture Series. “The tussle between tragedy and comedy, the light and dark, is in a lot of my work," Whitehead said. "And it’s in a lot of our hearts and minds over the course of the day.” Read a recap article on Whitehead's lecture. 

Discover More at the Creighton University Libraries: Colson Whitehead

Recommended Articles & Resources

Gwyn, A. (n.d.). A Useful Front: PW Talks with Colson Whitehead. PublishersWeekly.Com. Retrieved February 2, 2022, from https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/86326-a-useful-front-pw-talks-with-colson-whitehead.html

Harris, H. (2021, April 25). How Barry Jenkins and Colson Whitehead Made The Underground Railroad. Town & Country. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a36108498/underground-railroad-series-amazon-barry-jenkins-colson-whitehead-interview/

Whitehead, C., & Selzer, L. (2008). New Eclecticism: An Interview with Colson Whitehead. Callaloo, 31(2), 393–401. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27654810 

Whitehead, C. (2008, Mar 02). I write in brooklyn. get over it. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/i-write-brooklyn-get-over/docview/897773039/se-2?accountid=26876

Whitehead, C. (2008, Apr 24). Visible man. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/visible-man/docview/897132802/se-2?accountid=26876

Whitehead, C. (2009, Nov 04). The year of living postracially. New York Times (1923-) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/year-living-postracially/docview/1030684631/se-2?accountid=26876 

Whitehead, C. (2015). Coney Island. In A Coney Island Reader (pp. 288-292). New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press. https://creighton-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/r0shb9/01CRU_ALMA51119184870002656

 

Related Research Guides

Whitehead as Author

Please note, only The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys are currently available electronically. We also encourage you to check your local public library.