The Ohio Center for the Book is pleased to collaborate with Ursuline College, Case Western Reserve University, and Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards in hosting a series of book discussions. The Spring 2025 series will focus on memoirs by three Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners: Natasha Trethewey, Isabel Allende, and John Edgar Wideman.
Hosted by Dr. Valentino Zullo, Anisfield-Wolf Postdoctoral Fellow in English and Public Humanities at Ursuline College, and Dr. Jamie Hickner, Lecturer and Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in the English Department at Case Western Reserve University. All discussions are open to the public and take place at the Cleveland Public Library’s NEW Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch, 10601 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland.
Wednesday, 5/21, 4:00-5:45 PM – John Edgar Wideman’s Brothers and Keepers (1984)
A “brave and brilliant” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) portrait of lives arriving at different destinies, this classic John Edgar Wideman memoir is a haunting portrait of two brothers—one an awardwinning writer, the other a fugitive wanted for a robbery that resulted in a murder. Wideman recalls the capture of his younger brother, Robby, details the subsequent trials that resulted in a sentence of life in prison, and provides vivid views of the American prison system. A gripping, unsettling account, Brothers and Keepers weighs the bonds of blood, affection, and guilt that connect Wideman and his brother and measures the distance that lies between them. – Simon & Schuster