Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses racist violence.

John Edgar Wideman is a writer and professor best known for his commitment to reckoning with African American history in literature. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wideman attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he would later teach the university’s first courses in African American literature. He was an accomplished student, athlete, and writer from a young age, earning international recognition on all fronts, including being named a Rhodes Scholar by Oxford University. His personal experience and family history have played a large role in shaping the social critique in his writing.

Despite his fame and success, Wideman was subject to forms of institutional racism that shaped his family life and writing. Most significant for Wideman was his brother’s criminalization and incarceration, which he wrote about extensively in his 1984 memoir, Brothers and Keepers. Wideman’s brother, Robert, was involved as an accomplice in the robbery and accidental death of a neighbor. Although the neighbor’s death was largely a consequence of inadequate healthcare services in Pittsburgh, and Robert himself was only a witness to the shooting, the Pennsylvania courts found him guilty of second-degree murder. Wideman’s memoir examines the criminal justice system and the experience of life in prison, particularly for African Americans.