''All Aunt Hagar's Children'' (2006) is a collection of short stories by African-American author

Edward P. Jones Edward Paul Jones (born October 5, 1950) is an American novelist and short story writer. His 2003 novel '' The Known World'' received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. Biography Edward Paul Jones was born ...

; it was his first book after winning the 2004

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

for ''

The Known World ''The Known World'' is a 2003 historical novel by Edward P. Jones. Set in Virginia during the antebellum era, it examines the issues regarding the ownership of Black slaves by both white and Black Americans. The book was published to acclaim, wh ...

''. The collection of 14 stories centers on African Americans in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

during the 20th century. The stories can be broken down by how the characters suffer burdens from families, society, and themselves.John Allan Harrison
"All Aunt Hagar's Children"
''The Quarterly Conversation'' "Each story traces a journey--planned or unplanned, taken or failed--and an obvious root/route symbolism runs throughout the collection." Jones is noted for writing long short stories and these are no exception, they are sometimes called "novelistic", characters are fully fleshed out. The stories of his first and third book are connected. As

Neely Tucker Neely Tucker (born November 26, 1963, in Lexington, Mississippi) is a journalist and writer. He is the author of ''Love in the Driest Season'', an autobiographical story that touches on his journey from his education at a whites-only school in Mi ...

says: :"There are 14 stories in "Lost," ordered from the youngest to the oldest character, and there are 14 stories in "Hagar's," also ordered from youngest to oldest character. The first story in the first book is connected to the first story in the second book, and so on. To get the full history of the characters, one must read the first story in each book, then go to the second story in each, and so on."

"The Known World of Edward P. Jones"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', November 15, 2009.

Footnotes

External links

"Still Lost in the City"
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The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

''
''The Quarterly Conversation'' review

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Review of ''All Aunt Hagar's Children''
* Debbie Elliott
"Edward P. Jones' Tales of 'Aunt Hagar's Children'"

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

audio interview with Jones, August 27, 2006. 2006 short story collections African-American short story collections Works by Edward P. Jones PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction-winning works Amistad Press books {{2000s-story-collection-stub