The Black Studies Program at Cleveland State University will present an evening with Walter Mosley, the bestselling author of historical crime fiction mysteries, science fiction, and socio-political non-fiction, on Monday, April 14 from 6-9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and will take place in Waetjen Auditorium in the Music and Communications Building, located at 2001 Euclid Avenue on the Cleveland State campus.

A book-signing will follow Mosley’s talk. His lecture is a highlight of the Black Studies’ Black Aspirations Celebration, a weeklong series of events from April 14 to April 18.

Walter Mosley is the author of 26 critically acclaimed books and his work has been translated into 21 languages. His popular mysteries, featuring character Easy Rawlins, began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990. Others in the series include A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty and A Little Yellow Dog.

Two movies have been made from Mosley’s work, including Devil in a Blue Dress and Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. He is currently writing the screenplay for Little Scarlet.

Mosley is hailed by The Boston Globe as “one of the nation’s finest writers.” He has won numerous awards, including the Anisfield Wolf Award, an honor given to works that increase the appreciation and understanding of race in America. He is a recipient of the prestigious PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award; in 2002, he won a Grammy award for his liner notes accompanying "Richard Pryor…And It's Deep Too!: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (1968-1992)."

He was honored by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute with a "Risktaker Award" for both his creative and activist efforts in 2005. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy and GQ. His non-fiction has been published in The New York Times Magazine and The Nation. He was an O'Henry Award winner in 1996 (for a Socrates Fortlow story).

In 2005, Mosley published his first book for young adult readers, 47, a mix of history, science fiction and adventure about a young slave boy named, and numbered, 47 on a 19th century Georgia plantation.

Mosley’s visit is part of the Black Studies Program’s Tombouctou Book Club author series and is sponsored by the Dean’s Office of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the Black Studies Program, and the Office of Alumni Affairs.

For more information, please call the Black Studies Program at 216.687.5461.

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