Wideman, John Edgar (1941– )

US writer. His complex and literate fiction often drew on the African-American urban culture of his youth, and includes the award-winning Sent for You Yesterday (1983) and Philadelphia Fire (1990). He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ grant in 1993. He taught at the universities of Pennsylvania (1966–74), Wyoming (1974–85) and Massachusetts (from 1986).

Wideman was born in Washington, DC. He earned degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Oxford University, England, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He then attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His other books include Hurry Home (1970), The Lynchers (1973), and Stories (1992).