Edward P. Jones' portrait of Washington, D.C., is a mix of the real and the supernatural. It's a place where grandparents struggle to raise grandkids. And it's where the devil -- wearing a purple tie and two-toned shoes -- swims across the river.
Jones, a D.C. native, won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Known World, a tale of black slave owners in the antebellum South.
His latest published work is a collection of short stories called All Aunt Hagar's Children. His hometown is more than the setting for these stories ... it reads more like a major character.
"It just so happens that I was born and raised in Washington," Jones says. "Had I been born in Chicago, or San Antonio, the streets and places would have figured into whatever I wrote. Just so happens that it's Washington, D.C."
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