Jake Lamar was born in 1961 and grew up in New York City.  After graduating from Harvard University, he worked for Time magazine. Despite becoming one of its youngest associate editors, he decided to leave the magazine in 1989 to write Bourgeois Blues, a memoir about his relationship with his father and their lives as black men in America. This book was followed by The Last Integrationist, a political thriller that explores some of America's most explosive social questions.  Both books have received critical acclaim.
Lamar will discuss one of the central mysteries of writing: How does an author acquire a voice or develop a style?  He will then read from his forthcoming novel, Close to the Bone, an interracial comedy that takes place during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Cosponsored by: College of Communications, School of Art and Design, Department of English, Department of Philosophy, Department of Political Science, Afr0American Library, Afro-American Studies and Research Program, Center for African Studies, Creative Writing Program, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, LAS/Humanities Council, Africa-American Cultural Program