Thalia Book Club: Edward P. Jones' All Aunt Hagar's Children

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Awardwinning author Edward P. Jones discusses his story collection. In 14 sublime stories, Jones turns an unflinching eye to the ordinary citizens of Washington, DC. With the legacy of slavery just a stone’s throw behind them and the future uncertain, Jones’ characters inhabit a unique world that will haunt the reader for years to come.

Performance playlist:

Reading
Carmen de Lavallade

Conversation
Edward P. Jones and Wyatt Mason

Carmen de Lavallade is an actress and dancer who has worked with such choreographers as Lester Horton, John Butler, Geoffrey Holder, and Alvin Ailey, and is presently a member of the dance trio Paradigm. She first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as premier dancer in Samson and Delilah and Aida, and choreographed the 1990-93 productions of Porgy & Bess and Die Meistersinger. She acted on Broadway in House of Flowers, and off-Broadway in productions including Othello (Clarence Bayfield Award). She appears in the films Lone Star and Big Daddy.

Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of short stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short-listed for the National Book Award. He has taught fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Wyatt Mason is a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, where his essays regularly appear. He has written for The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, the London Review of Books, Slate, and The New York Times. Modern Library has published, in three volumes, his translations of the complete works of Arthur Rimbaud. He was awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle ‘Nona Balakian Citation’ for excellence in reviewing, and the 2006 National Magazine Award for his reviews and criticism in Harper’s Magazine.