Philip Roth. One of UChicago’s greatest literary alumni. 

This is him talking about the University of Chicago after winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2011.

“I took a year as a master’s degree and I taught there for two years; so I was there for three years in the 1950’s, middle 50’s. I loved the University of Chicago. I’d gone to a small, mediocre college. I happened to get a very good, rigorous literary education there, but it was still a small, rural college - and this was in a great city and had a great faculty and it had very, very smart students. Yes I enjoyed it.”

The 2012 Man Booker Prize long-list has been announced. Literary hounds can find it here. So we thought we might take this moment to point out that Philip Roth (AM ‘55) went here and was even an instructor in the writing program. Roth won the 2011 Man Booker International prize (awarded biennially). And he won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoral. Here’s an interview with him.