Isabel Wilkerson at the NYS Writers Institute in 2011

Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is the author of the national bestseller, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (2010), a sweeping history of the movement of Blacks from the former slave states to the cities of the industrial North from 1915 to 1970. One of the largest internal migrations in history, the Great Migration transformed cultural and political landscape of the United States. The book is based on interviews with 1,200 people who participated in the Migration, and brings to light the personal dramas and acts of courage that characterize a critical, but little-studied passage, in American history. Wilson was inspired to write the book by her family history and the migration of her parents.

Wilkerson spent most of her career as a national correspondent and Chicago Bureau Chief at The New York Times. She is the first black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in the history of American journalism and was the first black American to win for individual reporting. She received the Pulitzer in 1994 for her 1993 coverage of floods in the Midwest. Other journalism prizes include the George S. Polk Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Journalist of the Year award of the National Association of Black Journalists. Wilkerson currently serves as Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction in the College of Communications at Boston University.

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