from the Modern Language Association (MLA)
LAWRENCE P. JACKSON TO RECEIVE THE MLA’S WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH PRIZE FOR AN OUTSTANDING SCHOLARLY STUDY OF BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE OR CULTURE
New York, NY – 5 December 2011 – The Modern Language Association of America today announced it is awarding its tenth annual William Sanders Scarborough Prize to Lawrence P. Jackson, professor of English and African American studies at Emory University, for his book The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934– 1960, published by Princeton University Press. The prize is awarded for an outstanding scholarly study of black American literature or culture.
The William Sanders Scarborough Prize is one of eighteen awards that will be presented on 7 January 2012, during the association’s annual convention, to be held in Seattle. The members of the selection committee were James J. Davis (Howard Univ.), chair; Thadious Davis (Univ. of Pennsylvania); and Robert Levine (Univ. of Maryland). The committee’s citation for the winning book reads:
In this magisterial narrative history of African American literature running from the end of the Harlem Renaissance to the beginning of the civil rights period, Lawrence P. Jackson expands the archive for assessing African American writing during a period that has often been reduced to protest writing. Jackson places writers into fresh contexts of cohorts (critics and editors included) and threads a clear narrative line through three heady decades jam-packed with African American authors publishing in a variety of genres and venues. Jackson is excellent on the important influence of the Communist Party, on mid-twentieth-century black literary culture, and on issues of publishing and reception. Beautifully written and rich in historical detail, The Indignant Generation should quickly become a standard work in twentieth-century African American studies and United States publishing history.
Lawrence P. Jackson is a professor of English and African American studies at Emory University. He is the author of Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, 1913–1952 and the forthcoming My Father’s Name: A Black Virginia Family after the Civil War. His criticism and nonfiction have appeared in publications such as Baltimore Magazine, New England Quarterly, Massachusetts Review, Antioch Review, American Literature, and American Literary History. The holder of a doctorate degree in English and American literature from Stanford University, Professor Jackson has held fellowships from the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, the Stanford Humanities Center, the Ford Foundation, and the National Humanities Center. He began his teaching career at Howard University in 1997. His current project is a biography of Chester Himes.
The Modern Language Association of America and its 30,000 members in 100 countries work to strengthen the study and teaching of languages and literature. Founded in 1883, the MLA provides opportunities for its members to share their scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discuss trends in the academy. The MLA sustains one of the finest publication programs in the humanities, producing a variety of publications for language and literature professionals and for the general public. The association publishes the MLA International Bibliography, the only comprehensive bibliography in language and literature, available online. The MLA Annual Convention features meetings on a wide variety of subjects; this year’s convention in Seattle is expected to draw 8,000 attendees. More information on MLA programs is available at www.mla.org.
The William Sanders Scarborough Prize was established in 2001 and named for the first African American member of the MLA. It is awarded under the auspices of the Committee on Honors and Awards. The prize has been awarded to Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Maurice O. Wallace, Joanna Brooks, Jean Fagan Yellin, Alexander G. Weheliye, Jacqueline Goldsby, Candice M. Jenkins, Magdalena J. Zaborowska, and Monica L. Miller. Honorable mentions have been given to Thadious M. Davis, Susan Gillman, and Daphne Lamothe.
Other awards sponsored by the committee are the William Riley Parker Prize; the James Russell Lowell Prize; the MLA Prize for a First Book; the Howard R. Marraro Prize; the Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize; the Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize; the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars; the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize; the Morton N. Cohen Award; the MLA Prizes for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition and for a Distinguished Bibliography; the Lois Roth Award; the Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies; the MLA Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies; the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prizes for Comparative Literary Studies, for French and Francophone Studies, for Italian Studies, for Studies in Germanic Languages and Literatures, for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures, for a Translation of a Literary Work, for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature; and the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies.
William Sanders Scarborough (1852–1926) was the first African American member of the Modern Language Association. Brought up in the South, Scarborough was a dedicated student of languages and literature. He attended Atlanta University and graduated in 1875 from Oberlin College, where he later received an MA degree. After teaching at various Southern schools, Scarborough was appointed professor of Latin and Greek at Wilberforce University. He later served as president of the university from 1908 through 1920. Scarborough’s published works include First Lessons in Greek (1881) and Birds of Aristophanes (1886) and many articles in national magazines, including Forum and Arena. In 1882 he was the third black man to be elected for membership in the American Philological Association. Scarborough’s areas of interest included classical philology and linguistics with an emphasis on Negro dialects.
