Pulitzer winner Colson Whitehead to speak September 6

​Vernon Area Public Library joins more than 200 other Illinois libraries to kick off Season 3 of Illinois Libraries Present, a collaborative effort featuring virtual events with A-list authors and cultural influencers. The season opens with Colson Whitehead, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the 2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. 

“The Power of Story with Colson Whitehead” will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, September 6, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public; advance signup is required. Sign up at VAPLD.info/calendar or call 224-543-1485.
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Crook Manifesto is Whitehead’s latest release and the second book in the Harlem trilogy. In it, a furniture store owner and ex-grifter leaves the straight and narrow path when he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter in 1971 Manhattan. Kirkus Reviews calls it an “accomplished, streamlined, and darkly funny comedy of manners.”

Joining Whitehead in conversation is award-winning author Tochi Onyebuchi, whose books include Goliath, Riot Baby, the Beasts Made of Night series, the War Girls series, and (S)kinfolk.

Other speakers in the Illinois Libraries Present series this fall include National Endowment for the Arts Fellow Stephen Graham Jones and Netflix “Bake Squad” star Maya-Camille Broussard.