Isabel Wilkerson
Encyclopedia
Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer Prize
-winning journalist, and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.
, becoming editor-in-chief of the college newspaper The Hilltop. During college, Wilkerson intern
ed at many publications, including the Los Angeles Times
and the Washington Post.
In 1994, while Chicago bureau chief of The New York Times
, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize
in journalism, winning the feature writing award for her coverage of the 1993 midwestern floods
and her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings. Several of Wilkerson's articles are included in the book Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 - 2003, edited by David Garlock.
Wilkerson has also won a George S. Polk Award
, a Guggenheim Fellowship
, and a Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists
.
She has also held the positions of James M. Cox Professor of Journalism at Emory University
, Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University
and the Kreeger-Wolf endowed lecturer at Northwestern University
. She also served as a board member of the National Arts in Journalism Program at Columbia University
.
Wilkerson is now a Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction in the College of Communications at Boston University.
After fourteen years of research, she has just released a book called The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
, which examines the three geographic routes that were commonly used by African Americans leaving the southern states between 1915 and the 1970s, illustrated through the personal stories of people who took those routes. During her research for the book, Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people who made the migration from the South to Northern and Western cities. The book almost instantly hit number 11 on the NYT Bestseller list for nonfiction and has since been included in lists of best books of 2010 by many reviewers, including Salon.com, Atlanta Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Economist, and The Daily Beast. In March of 2011 the book won the National Book Critics Circle Award
(Nonfiction). The book also was also the nonfiction runner up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
in 2011.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning journalist, and the author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.
Biography
Born in Washington D.C., she studied journalism at Howard UniversityHoward University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, becoming editor-in-chief of the college newspaper The Hilltop. During college, Wilkerson intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
ed at many publications, including the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and the Washington Post.
In 1994, while Chicago bureau chief of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in journalism, winning the feature writing award for her coverage of the 1993 midwestern floods
Great Flood of 1993
The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 occurred in the American Midwest, along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from April to October 1993. The flood was among the most costly and devastating to ever occur in the United States, with $15 billion in damages...
and her profile of a 10-year-old boy who was responsible for his four siblings. Several of Wilkerson's articles are included in the book Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 - 2003, edited by David Garlock.
Wilkerson has also won a George S. Polk Award
George Polk Awards
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States.-History:...
, a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, and a Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists
National Association of Black Journalists
The National Association of Black Journalists is an organization of African American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C...
.
She has also held the positions of James M. Cox Professor of Journalism at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
, Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and the Kreeger-Wolf endowed lecturer at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. She also served as a board member of the National Arts in Journalism Program at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Wilkerson is now a Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction in the College of Communications at Boston University.
After fourteen years of research, she has just released a book called The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration is a history book by African-American author Isabel Wilkerson. It is about the The Great Migration and the Second Great Migration, the movement of blacks out of the Southern United States to the Midwest, Northeast and West...
, which examines the three geographic routes that were commonly used by African Americans leaving the southern states between 1915 and the 1970s, illustrated through the personal stories of people who took those routes. During her research for the book, Wilkerson interviewed more than 1,000 people who made the migration from the South to Northern and Western cities. The book almost instantly hit number 11 on the NYT Bestseller list for nonfiction and has since been included in lists of best books of 2010 by many reviewers, including Salon.com, Atlanta Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Economist, and The Daily Beast. In March of 2011 the book won the National Book Critics Circle Award
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
(Nonfiction). The book also was also the nonfiction runner up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which was first awarded in 2006, "is the only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace." Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point within the immediate past year that have led...
in 2011.
Books
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Random House, 2010) ISBN 978-0679444329
Essays, Columns and Lectures
- The New American Reader: Recent Periodical Essays, edited by Gilbert H. Muller (McGraw-Hill, 1997)
- "He Put a Spin on Design", in The Last Word: The New York Times Book of Obituaries and Farewells : a Celebration of Unusual Lives, edited by Marvin Siegel (William Morrow, 1997)
- "Superstars of Dreamland", in Best American Movie Writing, edited by George Plimpton (St. Martin’s Press, 1998)
- We Americans: Celebrating a Nation, Its People and Its Past, edited by Thomas B. Allen and Charles O. Hyman (National Geographic Society, 1999)
- "Two Boys, a Debt, a Gun, a Victim: The Face of Violence", in Writing the World: Reading and Writing about Issues of the Day, edited by Charles R. Cooper, Susan Peck MacDonald (Macmillan, 2000 ISBN 0312260083)
- Written into History: Pulitzer Prize Reporting of the Twentieth Century, edited by Anthony Lewis (Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2001)
- "First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas, 10", in Feature Writing for Newspapers and Magazines: The Pursuit of Excellence, edited by Edward Jay Friedlander and John Lee (HarperCollins College Publishers, 1997); and The Princeton Anthology of Writing, edited by John McPhee and Carol Rigolot (Princeton University Press, 2001)
- Various articles, Pulitzer Prize Feature Stories: America's Best Writing, 1979 - 2003, edited by David Garlock (Iowa State University Press, 1998; Wiley-Blackwell; 2nd edition, April 18, 2003)
- "Interviewing Sources", Spring 2002 Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference Report
- "Angela Whitiker's Climb", in Class Matters, by correspondents of The New York Times (Times Books, 2005)
- "Interviewing: Accelerated Intimacy", in Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call (Plume Penguin Books, January 30, 2007)
Awards
- 1993 George S. Polk Award for Regional Reporting, in The New York Times
- 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature WritingPulitzer Prize for Feature WritingThe Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing has been awarded since 1979 for a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high literary quality and originality. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.-List of winners and their...
- 1994 Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black JournalistsNational Association of Black JournalistsThe National Association of Black Journalists is an organization of African American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C...
- 2010 National Book Critics Circle AwardNational Book Critics Circle AwardThe National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
(Nonfiction), winner, The Warmth of Other Suns - 2011 NAACP Image AwardNAACP Image AwardAn NAACP Image Award is an accolade presented by the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music, and literature....
for Outstanding Literary Work Debut Author, nominated, The Warmth of Other Suns - 2011 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, winner, The Warmth of Other Suns
External links
- Isabel Wilkerson Tracks Exodus of Blacks from US South - video interview by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
- Time: Isabel Wilkerson on Black America's Immigration Story
- The Lives Gained by Fleeing Jim Crow By Janet Maslin, New York Times Book Review