Epps attended
St. Christopher's School and
Harvard College, where he was president of
The Harvard Crimson. He later received an
M.A. degree in creative writing from
Hollins University, and a
J.D. degree from
Duke University, where he was first in his class. After graduation from Harvard, he was a cofounder of
The Richmond Mercury, a short-lived alternative weekly whose alumni include
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists
Frank Rich and
Glenn Frankel. He also worked as an editor or reporter for The
Richmond Afro-American,
The Virginia Churchman,
The Free Lance–Star, and
The Washington Post. From 1983 until 1988, he was a columnist for
Independent Weekly (then a bi-weekly). Immediately before moving to the University of Oregon, he spent a year clerking for Judge
John D. Butzner of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Epps has written two novels, including
The Shad Treatment, which won the
Lillian Smith Book Award, as well as the nonfiction books
To An Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial, which was published in 2001 and was a finalist for the
American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, and
Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Civil Rights in Post-Civil War America, which was published in 2006.
Democracy Reborn won the 2007
Oregon Book Award for non-fiction, and was a finalist for the ABA Silver Gavel Award. He has also written numerous articles and opinion pieces in newspapers and magazines including the
New York Times,
The Washington Post, and
The Atlantic magazine. In his article "The Founders' Great Mistake", he urged the United States to amend its Constitution to more closely resemble a parliamentary system. ==Books==