Last week I received the very exciting news that two English
department colleagues—Catherine Prendergast and Joy Harjo—have been named Fellows of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. They are two of an unprecedented five Illinois faculty members who won this year—Asef Bayat in
Sociology, Stephen Taylor in Music, and Deke Weaver in Art and Design are the
others. Guggenheim fellowships are about as prestigious as things get in the
humanities and they recognize not just a particular project but the shape of a
career—these are very impressive and significant awards.
Cathy Prendergast is a long-time member of our department
and a leading figure in Writing Studies. Her first book, Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education, won multiple national awards from the likes of the MLA
and the NCTE. Her second book, Buying into English: Language and Investment in the Capitalist New World, was a
prominently reviewed study of the efforts of Slovaks to learn English in the
wake of the Cold War and in a moment of European unification. Her new book
project, which she’ll be working on during the tenure of her Guggenheim fellowship, is a study of writers’ and artists’ colonies like Yaddo and
Carmel-by-the Sea. Writer, Painter,
Banker, Thief will be an institutional history that brings culture and
economics together—it’s an exciting and timely project and I can’t wait to see
what Cathy comes up with!
Joy Harjo is a brilliant new addition to the Illinois
campus. With a primary appointment in American Indian Studies and an
affiliation with English, Joy is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and is one of
our most prominent poets. She is the author of numerous award-winning poetry
collections, including She Had Some Horses and How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems. But her Guggenheim is actually for nonfiction—a sign of
her versatility as a writer. I had the opportunity to hear her read from her
very powerful recent memoir Crazy Brave
last fall on campus, and I am very much looking forward to the follow-up. Crazy Brave won the PEN USA Literary
Award for best creative nonfiction. I should mention that Joy is also an
accomplished musician who plays saxophone and tours with a band.