born June 14, 1941, Washington, D.C., U.S.
U.S. writer and educator.
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania he became the second African American to receive a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University. He published his first novel, A Glance Away , in 1967. His first work of nonfiction was the acclaimed Brothers and Keepers (1984), in which he examines his relationship with his brother, who is serving a life sentence in prison. He won PEN/Faulkner Awards for Sent for You Yesterday (1983) and Philadelphia Fire (1990), a fictional account of the bombing of the militant black group MOVE combined with an examination of his relationship with his son, now in prison.