Author of "Pym," Mat Johnson to Speak - Expired Event

Reading: Thursday, February 9, 2012 – 8:15 pm, Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library, Reception to follow. Discussion with the Author: Friday, February 10, 2012 – 11:00 am-noon. Hollins Room, Wyndham Robertson Library. Mat Johnson's latest novel is Pym, a study and parody of Edgar Allan Poe's sci-fi classic journey to the center of the earth. "Pym is an adventure, a satire, and a bracing political debate all rolled into one brilliant novel," said Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine. "Edgar Allen Poe has inspired many authors but Mat Johnson has the inspired audacity to both honor and discredit the man, often in the same sentence. I imagine Poe choking on half the things Johnson writes in this novel, and tipping his tiny hat in admiration to the rest." Johnson's other works include the novels Drop and Hunting in Harlem; the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot; and the comic books Incognegro and Dark Rain. He is a recipient of the United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship, The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Johnson is a faculty member at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.