Pulitzer-winning author of 'The Underground Railroad' will speak at Chs. Music Hall

Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad, the 2016 winner of both the National Book Award and Pulitzer prize for fiction, heads to the Charleston Music Hall on Mon. March 19 for a talk organized by the Charleston Library Society as part of their annual speaker series. You can buy tickets (which include a copy of The Underground Railroad) to his talk online or by calling (843) 853-2252.

The Underground Railroad tells the story of Cora, a slave on the Randall Plantation in the deep South who escapes slavery and sets out on the Underground Railroad. In a recent interview with The Inlander, Whitehead said, "History in general, and the history of slavery, is not taught very well. The book does lay out the brutality of the system in sort of a very matter-of-fact way, so if you haven't read about slavery in a while or aren't acquainted with how it actually worked, then the book is quite eye-opening and startling."

In a press release Charleston Library Society executive director Anne Cleveland said, "The response from our book club’s discussion of The Underground Railroad was thought-provoking and memorable. To host him Charleston, with its deep Southern history described in his novel, will make for a very special night.”