Pulitzer Prize Recipient. He shall be remembered for receiving the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his short stories collection "Elbow Room" in 1978 and became the first African American to accomplish this feat. His father was an electrician, his mother was a maid, he initially studied at Morris Brown College and Morgan State University, prior to earning his Law degree from Harvard University in 1968. However following graduation from law school, he gravitated towards writing and studied at the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. His first mark as a writer was with the short story "Gold Coast" in 1968, and in 1969, he penned his first collection titled "Hue and Cry." He collaborated with Miller Williams on the non-fiction work "Railroad: Trains and Train People in American Culture" in 1976, prior to receiving the Pulitzer Prize for "Elbow Room" in 1977, which in which he cleverly detailed lives of whites and African Americans in a fictional array of storytelling. In addition to writing, McPherson taught Literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Morgan State University. He died of complications from pneumonia.

Pulitzer Prize Recipient. He shall be remembered for receiving the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his short stories collection "Elbow Room" in 1978 and became the first African American to accomplish this feat. His father was an electrician, his mother was a maid, he initially studied at Morris Brown College and Morgan State University, prior to earning his Law degree from Harvard University in 1968. However following graduation from law school, he gravitated towards writing and studied at the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. His first mark as a writer was with the short story "Gold Coast" in 1968, and in 1969, he penned his first collection titled "Hue and Cry." He collaborated with Miller Williams on the non-fiction work "Railroad: Trains and Train People in American Culture" in 1976, prior to receiving the Pulitzer Prize for "Elbow Room" in 1977, which in which he cleverly detailed lives of whites and African Americans in a fictional array of storytelling. In addition to writing, McPherson taught Literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Morgan State University. He died of complications from pneumonia.

Bio by: C.S.