A former national correspondent and bureau chief at The New York Times, Wilkerson is the first black woman in American history to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Inspired by her parents’ migration from the South, she devoted fifteen years to the research and writing of her first book, The Warmth of Other Suns. The result is a critically acclaimed best-seller and the first major work chronicling the decades-long migration of some six million African-Americans who fled the South. The Warmth of Other Suns follows the intimate and moving stories of three African–American families who left the only place they'd ever known—the rural, small town South—to find a better life in the urban North and West. Wilkerson's book made it onto President Obama's summer reading list, and Tom Brokaw described it as "An epic for all Americans who want to understand the making of our modern nation."
You can hear Wilkerson discuss her book and career in person at this upcoming event. There will be a book signing following her talk. CAABJ member Mary C. Curtis, who used to work with Wilkerson at The New York Times, will moderate the event.
Tickets are $12, and are on sale through the NC Blumenthal Performing Arts Center Box Office: carolinatix.org or 704-372-1000.
