Tickets to See Colson Whitehead Receive 2025 St. Louis Literary Award Go on Sale on February 7
ST. LOUIS – Tickets for the St. Louis Literary Award ceremony honoring Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead will go on sale Friday, Feb. 7, at 10 a.m. Whitehead will receive the award on April 9 at the Sheldon Concert Hall.
Tickets for the 2025 St. Louis Literary Award event are $15 and available through Metrotix.
Colson Whitehead will receive the 2025 St. Louis Literary Award on April 9. Photo by Chris Close.
Whitehead is the author of the novels “The Intuitionist,” “John Henry Days,” “Apex Hides the Hurt,” “Sag Harbor,” “The Underground Railroad,” “The Nickel Boys,” and “Harlem Shuffle,” among others. He also penned a book of essays about New York City, “The Colossus of New York.”
Whitehead graduated from Harvard College and worked as a television, books and music reviewer at the Village Voice.
In addition to the Pulitzer, “The Underground Railroad,” won the National Book Award and the Carnegie Medal for Fiction. “The Nickel Boys” won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Whitehead has been a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway, PEN/Faulkner, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.
He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.
Whitehead was named the New York State Author in 2018 and awarded the Prize for American Fiction from the Library of Congress in 2020.
Whitehead has taught at the University of Houston, Columbia University, New York University and Princeton University. He has also served as a writer-in-residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and the University of Wyoming.
The St. Louis Literary Award department in SLU Libraries also includes a Campus Read series, which is open to the public; the Undergraduate Writing Award; Literature & Medicine; Inspired By Arts Showcase for High School and College Students; and the Walter J. Ong S.J. Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Research.
St. Louis Literary Award
The St. Louis Literary Award is presented annually by the Saint Louis University Libraries and has become one of the top literary prizes in the country. The award honors a writer who deepens our insight into the human condition and expands the scope of our compassion. Some of the most important writers of the 20th and 21st centuries have come to Saint Louis University to accept the honor, including Margaret Atwood, Salmon Rushdie, Eudora Welty, John Updike, Saul Bellow, August Wilson, Stephen Sondheim, Zadie Smith and Tom Wolfe.
Saint Louis University
Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,200 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.
Latest Newslink
- Missouri State Board of Nursing Grant, Full Scholarships Help SLU Build the Nurse Educator PipelineSaint Louis University is one of several Missouri colleges and universities awarded grant funding to continue enhancing nursing education programs statewide.
- St. Louis Magazine Names 5 SLU Nurses 2025 Excellence in Nursing FinalistsThe Excellence in Nursing Awards were established to recognize the critical role that nurses play in the health care system, highlighting those who go above and beyond in their practice.
- Saint Louis University Honored for Work in Jesuit Refugee EducationSaint Louis University has been awarded a 2025 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization by NAFSA: Association of International Education. Named after the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, the annual NAFSA Simon Awards celebrate outstanding commitment and accomplishment in campus internationalization.
- Saint Louis University Achieves Prestigious R1 Status, Joining Elite Group of U.S. Research UniversitiesR1 designation is the highest classification that universities can attain for research activity. SLU’s rise to R1 is the result of a decade-long, institution-wide effort to become a national exemplar for educational and research excellence. Since 2014, the University has focused on creating a robust research environment that fosters collaboration across disciplines and offers new opportunities for faculty and students to explore today’s most urgent challenges.
- Saint Louis University Deepens Partnership with University of Mumbai, Expands Opportunities for Students in IndiaSLU is expanding its partnership with the University of Mumbai, adding chemistry to an innovative 1+1 pathway program that allows students to complete their first year in India before finishing their master’s degree at SLU in St. Louis. SLU’s president recently traveled to India to advance these efforts, highlighting the University’s commitment to global education.
- Watch What You Eat: NFL Game Advertisements Promote Foods High in Fat, SodiumResearch from Saint Louis University and the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine finds that some of the most-watched ads promote the worst food options for adults with chronic health conditions.
