Lawrence P Jackson to Receive MLA Award for Outstanding Scholarly Study of Black American Literature

from the Modern Language Association (MLA)
LAWRENCEP. JACKSON TO RECEIVE THE MLA'S WILLIAM SANDERS SCARBOROUGH PRIZE FOR ANOUTSTANDING SCHOLARLY STUDY OF BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE OR CULTURE
NewYork, NY – 5 December 2011 – The Modern Language Association of America todayannounced it is awarding its tenth annual William Sanders Scarborough Prize toLawrence P. Jackson, professor of English and African American studies at EmoryUniversity, for his book The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History ofAfrican American Writers and Critics, 1934– 1960, published by PrincetonUniversity Press. The prize is awarded for an outstanding scholarly study ofblack American literature or culture.
TheWilliam Sanders Scarborough Prize is one of eighteen awards that will bepresented on 7 January 2012, during the association's annual convention, to beheld in Seattle. The members of the selection committee were James J. Davis(Howard Univ.), chair; Thadious Davis (Univ. of Pennsylvania); and RobertLevine (Univ. of Maryland). The committee's citation for the winning bookreads:
Inthis magisterial narrative history of African American literature running fromthe end of the Harlem Renaissance to the beginning of the civil rights period,Lawrence P. Jackson expands the archive for assessing African American writingduring a period that has often been reduced to protest writing. Jackson placeswriters into fresh contexts of cohorts (critics and editors included) andthreads a clear narrative line through three heady decades jam-packed withAfrican American authors publishing in a variety of genres and venues. Jacksonis excellent on the important influence of the Communist Party, onmid-twentieth-century black literary culture, and on issues of publishing andreception. Beautifully written and rich in historical detail, The IndignantGeneration should quickly become a standard work in twentieth-centuryAfrican American studies and United States publishing history.
LawrenceP. Jackson is a professor of English and African American studies at EmoryUniversity. He is the author of Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, 1913–1952and the forthcoming My Father's Name: A Black Virginia Family after theCivil War. His criticism and nonfiction have appeared in publications suchas Baltimore Magazine, New England Quarterly, Massachusetts Review, AntiochReview, American Literature, and American Literary History. Theholder of a doctorate degree in English and American literature from StanfordUniversity, Professor Jackson has held fellowships from the W. E. B. Du BoisInstitute at Harvard University, the Stanford Humanities Center, the FordFoundation, and the National Humanities Center. He began his teaching career atHoward University in 1997. His current project is a biography of Chester Himes.
TheModern Language Association of America and its 30,000 members in 100 countrieswork to strengthen the study and teaching of languages and literature. Foundedin 1883, the MLA provides opportunities for its members to share theirscholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discusstrends in the academy. The MLA sustains one of the finest publication programsin the humanities, producing a variety of publications for language andliterature professionals and for the general public. The association publishesthe MLA International Bibliography, the only comprehensive bibliographyin language and literature, available online. The MLA Annual Conventionfeatures meetings on a wide variety of subjects; this year's convention inSeattle is expected to draw 8,000 attendees. More information on MLA programsis available at www.mla.org.
TheWilliam Sanders Scarborough Prize was established in 2001 and named for thefirst African American member of the MLA. It is awarded under the auspices ofthe 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, andMonica L. Miller. Honorable mentions have been given to Thadious M. Davis,Susan Gillman, and Daphne Lamothe.
Otherawards sponsored by the committee are the William Riley Parker Prize; the JamesRussell 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 Prizefor Independent Scholars; the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize; the Morton N.Cohen Award; the MLA Prizes for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition and for aDistinguished Bibliography; the Lois Roth Award; the Fenia and Yaakov LeviantMemorial Prize in Yiddish Studies; the MLA Prize in United States Latina andLatino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies; the Aldo andJeanne Scaglione Prizes for Comparative Literary Studies, for French andFrancophone Studies, for Italian Studies, for Studies in Germanic Languages andLiteratures, for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures, for a Translationof a Literary Work, for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature; andthe Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in ItalianLiterary Studies.
William Sanders Scarborough(1852–1926) was the first African American member of the Modern LanguageAssociation. Brought up in the South, Scarborough was a dedicated student oflanguages and literature. He attended Atlanta University and graduated in 1875from Oberlin College, where he later received an MA degree. After teaching atvarious Southern schools, Scarborough was appointed professor of Latin andGreek at Wilberforce University. He later served as president of the universityfrom 1908 through 1920. Scarborough's published works include First Lessonsin Greek (1881) and Birds of Aristophanes (1886) and many articlesin national magazines, including Forum and Arena. In 1882 he wasthe third black man to be elected for membership in the American PhilologicalAssociation. Scarborough's areas of interest included classical philology andlinguistics with an emphasis on Negro dialects.