The Paul H. Nitze
Scholars Program

Paul H. Nitze Senior Fellow 2005-06

Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize novelist: The Known World and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant"

In his three visits to St. Mary's over the year, Mr. Jones:

• did a reading from The Known World, with discussion;
• participated with Lucille Clifton, Wayne Karlin and other writers in a panel discussion "A Writer's Work:  Why We Do What We Do";
• did a reading from new short stories, with discussion  (These stories were published later that year in his collection All Aunt Hagar's Children.)

Nitze Scholars in the spring 2007 NITZ 181--Leadership Tutorial read The Known World and Lost in the City, and discussed these works with him at an extended breakfast seminar.

Edward P. Jones was born in Washington, D.C. in l950. He attended the local public schools, graduating from Cardoza High School, and won a scholarship to Holy Cross College. Seven years after he graduated from college, he earned his M.F. A. at the University of Virginia.

After a series of jobs, he began working for a tax newsletter, first as a proof reader and then eventually as a columnist, the latter job he held for over ten years. During this time Jones kept on writing. His first short story was published in Essence in l976. Since then he has had stories published in The Paris Review, Ploughshares and Callaloo. He has taught creative writing at the University of Virginia, George Mason University, the University of Maryland, and Princeton University.

Edward Jones' first collection of short stories, Lost in the City, was published in l992 and won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short-listed for the National Book Award.

Jones' first novel, The Known World, published by Harpercollins Publishers in September 2003, received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In addition, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Edward P. Jones was named a MacArthur fellow for 2004.