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Isabel Wilkerson

Isabel Wilkerson is the author of The Warmth of Other Suns, an epic story of the Great Migration, chronicling the journey of over six million black Americans from the South who migrated north and west between World War I and the 1970s. Inspired by her own parents’ migration, she devoted 15 years to the research and writing of the book, interviewing more than 1,200 people along the way. The book was named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, among other honors, and was chosen by President Obama for summer reading in 2011. In 2012, the New York Times named The Warmth of Other Suns to its list of the best nonfiction books of all time.

Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of the New York Times, making her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting. She has appeared on national programs such as CBS' "60 Minutes," NPR's "Fresh Air" and PBS' "NewsHour" and "Charlie Rose Show." She had taught at Princeton University, Emory University and Boston University and has spoken at more than 100 universities in the United States and in Europe.