There is only one living writer whose work has traversed the subjects of slavery, poker, commercial nomenclature and zombies. Colson Whitehead is audacious, inventive and utterly unpredictable.
No matter the subject, the acclaimed New York-based novelist always delivers strange and striking slants – often speculative or satirical in nature. His latest book, The Underground Railroad, won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and was chosen by one Barack Obama for his summer reading list. (Oh – and it also just won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction).
The Underground Railroad takes a real-life historical phenomenon – the secret network of subterranean routes used by African-American slaves to escape to free states in the 1800s – and adorns it with fantastical elements: locomotives and boxcars delivering the fleeing slave protagonist, Cora, to various surreal and nightmarish scenarios. It’s a novel about the hijacking of black narratives and the crimes at the foundation of the United States.
This singular voice in American literature joins host Michael Williams for a conversation about race and resistance in fiction.
Featuring
Featuring
Colson Whitehead is a multi-award winning and bestselling author whose works include The Nickel Boys, The Underground Railroad, The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt and a collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. He is one of only four ... Read more
Michael Williams joined Sydney Writers’ Festival in September 2020, as the Artistic Director navigating the post-pandemic landscape going into the 2021 festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne; as its founding Head of Programming in 200... Read more
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