And the first African-American author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction has died at the age of 72. James Alan McPherson was awarded the Pulitzer in 1978 for his book “Elbow Room.” McPherson grew up attending segregated schools in Georgia. He graduated from Harvard Law School. He pursued fiction instead of law after winning a short story contest. He was professor emeritus at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the time of his death.
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