Out of hundreds of submissions, books from an Emory University professor and an alumna are among just 50 longlisted for this year’s National Book Awards.
“The Tradition,” the third collection of poems from Jericho Brown, Winship Distinguished Research Professor in Creative Writing, is one of 10 works longlisted for the award for poetry. Brown, director of Emory’s acclaimed creative writing program, previously won the 2009 American Book Award for his first collection, “Please.”
“Thick: And Other Essays” from sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who earned her PhD in 2015 from Emory’s Laney Graduate School, is among 10 books longlisted for the award for nonfiction. It is her second book.
The National Book Foundation will announce five finalists in each category on Oct. 8. The 2019 winners will be announced on Nov. 20.
If they win, they will join three Emory professors who recently won notable awards for their most recent works.
Vanessa Siddle Walker, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Studies, is one of three recipients of this year’s Lillian Smith Book Award from the Southern Regional Council. She won for her “The Lost Education of Horace Tate,” her 20-year investigation into the hidden network of black educators who laid the groundwork for Brown v. Education – and struggled with the aftermath.
Lisa Dillman’s translation of Yuri Herrera’s “Signs Preceding the End of the World” was selected by The Guardian as one of the top 100 books of the 21st century. Dillman, a senior lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese, had previously won a national translation award for that work, one of only 14 translations on the top 100 list.
The Southern Jewish Historical Society recently awarded a book co-authored by Eric. L. Goldstein, Judith London Evans Director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, its quadrennial book prize. Goldstein, an associate professor of history and Jewish studies, earned the honor for “On Middle Ground,” with co-author and historian Deborah Weiner. The book, which examines both the formal institutions of Jewish life and the experiences of everyday families in Baltimore, was previously named a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award.
Emory celebrates faculty and staff who write and edit newly published books every year with its Feast of Words ceremony. Earlier this year, the celebration recognized 111 books published in 2018.