| Pulitzer winner tells young writers to read, read, read BY ADRIENNE FRANK It’s not every day that aspiring, writers have a Pulitzer Prize winner in their midst, but that was the scene at the Battelle-Tompkins atrium last Wednesday, as a group of MFA students welcomed Edward Jones. 
Photo by Jeff Watts
Author Edward Jones addressed MFA students last week. Jones, a Washington, D.C., native, won the Pulitzer in 2004 for his debut novel, The Known World, the story of a black slave owner in Manchester County, Va. He chatted with students about the writing process before giving a reading as part of the Department of Literature’s Visiting Writers Series. Although he’s been compared to such literary greats as William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, the soft-spoken Jones was humble as he sat before a crowd of several dozen students and faculty. “You know, 99.99 percent of people have never had a book published; I’ve had three,” he said. “But all that stuff won’t help me write one single line.” One student asked Jones about the “scariest part” of the writing process. “Once something comes to [me] and begins to take shape, the fear is that I won’t come up with the climactic moments,” Jones said. “So, I rush toward the end and, in the final pages or the final chapter, manage to pull it all together.” Jones said he knew how The Known World would begin and end, but there were “one or two surprises along the way.” “Whatever the brain comes up with, never throw it away, because it always has a use down the line,” he explained. Jones encouraged the students to “read, read, read,” to let their imagination guide them, and to pay little mind to critics. “You can’t be worried about every Tom, Dick, and Harry. The only concern you should have is writing every character with the humanity they deserve,” he said. In addition to The Known World, Jones’s works include All Aunt Hagar’s Children and Lost in the City, a collection of 14 stories that explore African American life in Washington, D.C. A Palestinian student in the audience explained to Jones that she often feels that her writing should support “the cause,” and asked if he feels an obligation, as an African American writer, to explore the black condition in his work. “It just so happens, when I think of stories, there are black people in those stories,” he said. “If you want to write about Eskimos, do it. Don’t limit yourself.” |
