Oak Forest Grad George Saunders To Talk About Award-Winning Novel

CHICAGO — Acclaimed author George Saunders, who grew up in Oak Forest and graduated from Oak Forest High School, will be part of this year's Chicago Humanities Festival. He will discuss his book, "Lincoln in the Bardo," which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize, on Oct. 27 at the Chicago Symphony Center.

Saunders will talk about his first novel — a fictionalized look at the night in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln's 11-year-old son was buried in a Washington, D.C., cemetery — with Chicago Tribune books editor Jennifer Day. A book signing will follow the discussion, and the novel can be purchased through the festival's box office.

Saunders, 58, was born in Texas but grew up in Oak Forest. He graduated from Oak Forest High School in 1977 and earned his bachelor degree in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines before picking up a master's in creative writing from Syracuse University.

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Over his career, Saunders has built a reputation as a renowned short story author, and his previous collections include "Civil WarLand in Bad Decline," "In Persuasion Nation" and "Tenth of December: Stories." He's also known for his essay, "A Two-Minute Note to the Future," that was published on Chipotle bags in 2014.

"More people from Oak Forest contact me about the Chipotle bags than any of my other writing," he told Oak Forest High School English classes in 2015.

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Saunders is the second American author to be awarded the Man Booker Prize in the British award's nearly 50-year history. The prize, first handed out in 1969, honors "high quality literary fiction written in English," and past winners have included Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Iris Murdoch.

"This tale of the haunting and haunted souls in the afterlife of Abraham Lincoln's young son paradoxically creates a vivid and lively evocation of the characters that populate this other world. 'Lincoln in the Bardo' is both rooted in, and plays with history, and explores the meaning and experience of empathy," said Baroness Lola Young, the 2017 chair of judges for the Booker Prize.

George Saunders at Chicago Humanities Festival: The Basics

When: 3 to 4 p.m. Oct. 27

Where: Chicago Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.

Tickets: $10 to $39. Go to the Chicago Humanities Festival website to buy tickets and Saunder's book.

More info: Details about the event can be found at the festival's website.

George Saunders (Photo via Shutterstock)