African American Review will, from time to time, feature “Forgotten Manuscripts,” modeled on the new “Little-Known Documents” section of PMLA. Because so much of African American literary, print, and cultural production remains unknown or ignored, and so much scholarly attention is yet devoted to the most canonical texts and topics of the heritage, the journal will publish short occasional essays (1,000-2,000 words) that introduce and contextualize short excerpts (3,000-5,000 words) from manuscripts neglected but noteworthy to African Americanists in diverse academic disciplines as well as to folks generally interested in African American matters. Please see our guidelines for submission protocol.
2009 Darwin T. Turner Award Winner
The Darwin T. Turner Award is presented each December in recognition of the year’s best essay in African American Review. The award was announced at the 2009 Modern Language Association convention to Brian Russell Roberts for his essay “Lost Theaters of African American Internationalism: Diplomacy and Henry Francis Downing in Luanda and London.”
2009 Joe Weixlmann Award Winner
The Joe Weixlmann Award is presented each December in recognition of the year’s best essay on 20th-century African American literature in African American Review. The award was announced at the 2009 Modern Language Association convention to Rolland Murray for his essay “Black Crisis Shuffle: Fiction, Race, and Simulation.”
Competitions for MLA Publication Awards
Please visit http://www.mla.org/resources/awards/awards_submissions/awards_competitions for more information.
UNC Institute of African American Research Humanities Writing Competition
The Institute of African American Research (IAAR) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will offer a $1000 prize for the best cross-disciplinary, collaborative effort in the Arts and Humanities that yields a historically-grounded script on a topic of African American research. Established and aspiring scholars and writers with expertise in creative writing, literary criticism, philosophy, history, communications, performance studies, sociocultural anthropology, and other relevant disciplines are encouraged to apply. Submitted scripts will be considered for production. There are no limits on the historical time frame or genre of writing. Scripts should be submitted electronically and in hard-copy format to the IAAR by 1 March 2010. Acceptable submissions should reflect African American sensibilities, cultural norms, and perspectives. Submissions should be no more than 50 pages in length, double spaced. Contributions become the property of IAAR which will retain exclusive rights for subsequent distribution and use. Entries will be judged by a panel of experts in the Arts and Humanities. Faculty, staff, students, and community members are welcome to apply. The contest is sponsored by the Endogenous Knowledge Unit (EKU) of the IAAR. Two hardcopies of each submitted script should be sent to EKU, IAAR, 150 South Road, Campus Box 3393, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3393. An electronic version of the same submission should be sent to: iaar@unc.edu. Submissions will be judged by experts in script writing, and the winners of this contest will be acknowledged in Spring 2010. There are no limits to the number of entries that can be submitted.
National Humanities Center Fellowships 2011-2012
The National Humanities Center offers 40 residential fellowships for advanced study. Applicants must hold doctorate or have equivalent scholarly credentials, and a record of publication is expected. Both senior and younger scholars are eligible for fellowships, but the latter should be engaged in research other than the revision of a doctoral dissertation. Fellowships are for the academic year (Sept. 2009 - May 2010). Scholars from any nation and humanistically inclined individuals from the natural and social sciences, the arts, the professions, and public life, as well as from all fields of the humanities, are eligible.
Most the of the Center’s fellowships are unrestricted. The following designated awards, however, are available for the academic year 2008-2009: three fellowships for scholars in any humanistic field whose research concerns religion or theology; a fellowship in art history or visual culture; a fellowship for French history or culture; a fellowship in Asian Studies.
Fellowships up to $50,000 are individually determined, the amount depending upon the needs of the Fellow and the Center’s ability to meet them. The Center provides travel expenses for Fellows and their dependents to and from North Carolina.
Applicants submit the Center’s form supported by a curriculum vitae, a 1,000-word project proposal, and three letters of recommendation. You may request application material from Fellowship Program, National Humanities Center, Post Office Box 12256, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709-2256, or obtain the form and instructions from the Center’s website: www.nhc.rtp.nc.us. Applications and letters of recommendation must be postmarked by 15 October 2010.
The Schomburg Center residency program is designed to (1) encourage research and writing on the history, literature, and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora, (2) to promote and facilitate interaction among the participants including fellows funded by other sources, and (3) to facilitate the dissemination of the researchers’ findings through lectures, publications, and the ongoing Schomburg Center Colloquium and Seminar Series. Fellowships are awarded for continuous periods of six or twelve months at the Schomburg Center with maximum stipends of $25,000 for six months and up to $50,000 for twelve months. Applicants must indicate in their proposal how they propose to use the resources of the Schomburg Center as well as those of the research units of The New York Public Library to further their research. Completed applications and proposals must be postmarked no later than 1 December 2010. For access to the Schomburg Center and The New York Public Library catalogs, visit www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html. For more information, call (212) 491-2218.
The Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program gives 10 long-time activists of color financial support in the amount of $15,000 to take sabbaticals of three months or more. Previous Alston/Bannerman fellows have worked on a broad range of issues, from environmental justice to immigrant rights, from political empowerment to economic revitalization. Alston/Bannerman Fellows have the freedom to use their sabbaticals in whatever way they think will best re-energize them for the work ahead, and no product (other than a brief report) is required upon completion of the sabbatical. In order to be eligible, applicants must be an individual of color, have at least 10 years of experience as a community activist, be committed to continuing work for social change, and be a resident of the United States or its territories. Visit www.alstonbannerman.org for more information on the program and to download an application. Contact: Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program, 1627 Lancaster St., Baltimore, MD 21231, Telephone: (410) 327-6220, Fax: (501) 421-5862, Email: info@AlstonBannerman.org.
2010-2011 African American Studies Fellowship
The Massachusetts Historical Society offers approximately thirty research fellowships each year to independent scholars, advanced graduate students, and college and university faculty in all disciplines. Of particular interest to scholars of African American history is the African American Studies Fellowship. This grant provides a stipend of $1500 to one scholar for four weeks of research at the Society between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011. For more information, please visit www.masshist.org/fellowships; contact Kate Viens, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215; email fellowships@masshist.org; or call (617) 646-0518. Application deadline date: 1 March 2010. For more information about the Massachusetts Historical Society’s other awards, including the MHS-NEH Long-Term Fellowships and support through the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium, please check the Society’s web site, www.masshist.org/fellowships.
Charles Johnson Award
The Charles Johnson Award, a $1,000 annual, national creative writing contest for US college students, now has a Web site www.siu.edu/~johnson. Entry for the contest is free. This nonprofit competition encourages students exploring issues of marginalized and/or minority culture.
The purpose of The Harriet Wilson Project is to raise awareness of Harriet Wilson and her literary work, to educate the public on her contribution to American history and her contribution to American literature, and to publicly honor her for her accomplishments. It is the intent of The Harriet Wilson Project to promote, preserve, and seek recognition of Harriet Wilson's book Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black for its historical significance, and to provide a fitting memorial in her honor.
Incorporated as a non-profit organization in April 2003, The Harriet Wilson Project, was formed by a group of civic minded citizens of different ethnicities who came together to raise awareness, celebrate, and honor the life and accomplishments of Harriet Wilson, a pre-Civil War black author from Milford, New Hampshire. For more information, please visit www.harrietwilsonproject.org.
nocturnes: (re)view of the literary arts is a theme-based journal committed to publishing quality innovative critical and creative art from throughout the African Diaspora and other contested spaces. The journal serves as a forum for examining and celebrating the natural connections between diverse artistic mediums as expressed through visual and written language. Please visit them on the web at http://www.nocturneseditions.org.
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University is home to the Claude McKay Collection. McKay (1890-1948), one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote several collections of poetry, novels, short stories, non-fiction and autobiographical books. He lived in the United States, primarily in New York, from 1913-1919, and then spent most of the next 15 years in England, Russia, France, Spain and Morocco before returning to New York in 1934.
The collection has been reprocessed and consists of letters, manuscripts, personal papers, subject files, photographs and memorabilia. There is correspondence from many well-known writers and figures in the African American community from the first half of the twentieth century, including Langston Hughes, Countée Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, Harold Jackman, and Arna Bontemps. There are drafts of published and unpublished poetry collections, novels, autobiographical writings, and short story and essay compilations, including The Selected Poems of Claude McKay (1953), Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940), “Romance in Marseille,” an unpublished novel written in Spain in 1930, and My Green Hills of Jamaica (1979), McKay’s autobiography of his youth. McKay contributed to many liberal and socialist journals, including Sylvia Pankhurst’s Worker’s Dreadnaught and Max Eastman’s The Liberator, and there are various pieces of non-fiction, most in draft form, as well as a few polemical newspaper articles, dating from the early and late 1930s, in which McKay responds to critics of his literary work and views on labor.
The collection now includes previously unprocessed photographs and memorabilia. The two largest groups of photographs are those taken in Russia and North Africa, while McKay lived abroad, and studio portraits of well-known musicians and figures in the African American community. McKay was well received in Soviet Russia in the early 1920s and there are photographs of Lenin, Trotsky and other high ranking party officials, of McKay with members of the Russian Naval Academy and other groups, and of McKay addressing the Fourth Congress of the Communist International in the Throne Room at the Kremlin in Moscow. The memorabilia consists of clippings, photographs, program materials and souvenirs from various events honoring McKay’s life and work between 1979-1990.
The finding aid for the collection may be found at http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.mckay.con.html.
African American Literature Book Club, a cyberspace book club, displays a rich diversity of African American writing. The AALBC is linked to many of the authors and provides the ability to purchase books directly from the author or on-line via Barnes & Noble. Visit the AALBC at www.aalbc.com.
HBCUmentor is the ultimate resource for students who are planning to attend a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). This free interactive website helps students choose a career and find the best school for preparing for that career. A free email account lets them communicate with the schools of their choice. They can also apply for admission and financial aid online. A fully customizable MyMentor account allows them to keep track of where they’ve applied, and customize the site to only include those schools. They can also record their courses and corresponding grades in a personal online portfolio. A financial aid estimator helps students and their families estimate the amount of aid they can expect to receive and the world’s largest database of available free money helps students find scholarships for which they may be eligible.
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