Fiction Writer Mat Johnson Delivers Reading at Emory, 2/26-2/27

Fiction writer Mat Johnson delivers a reading at Emory University on Tuesday, February 26 6:30 p.m. in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library. Johnson will also hold a public colloquium Wednesday, February 27 at 2:30 in the Callaway Center on Emory's campus. Both events are free and open to the public with a book signing to follow the reading.

Born to an Irish-American father and an African American mother and raised in the Philadelphia area, Mat Johnson writes primarily about the lives of African Americans, using fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels as mediums. He is the author of the novels "Pym," "Hunting in Harlem," "Drop," the nonfiction novella "The Great Negro Plot," and the comic books "Right State," "Dark Rain," and "Incognegro."

In 2007, the United States Artists Foundation, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists, named Johnson the first USA James Baldwin Fellow. He was awarded the 2011 John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Fiction. He is also the recipient of a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. He is a faculty member at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.

In addition to his reading on February 26, Johnson will hold a free colloquium for Emory students and the community on Wednesday, February 27. He will discuss his creative process and answer questions from the audience.

Johnson's visit to campus is a part of the Emory University Creative Writing Program Reading Series, bringing international writers to the Emory and Atlanta community. All events are free and open to the public. For additional information visit www.arts.emory.edu.