World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Brent Hayes Edwards

ブレント・ヘイズ・エドワーズ

Burento Heizu Edowāzu

Profile

Gender
Male
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
New Haven, CT, USA → New York, NY, USA → New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Career

Occupations
Professor, Researcher, Academic
Affiliations
Columbia University, Rutgers University (former), Editorial board: Callaloo, Editorial board: Transition
Influenced By
Stuart Hall

Education

Yale University
Degree: BA
Country: United States
Columbia University
Degree: MA, PhD
Country: United States

Awards

John Hope Franklin Prize
2004
Work: The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism
Organization: American Studies Association
Result: 受賞
Gilbert Chinard Prize
2004
Work: The Practice of Diaspora
Organization: Society for French Historical Studies
Result: 受賞
James Russell Lowell Prize (honorable mention)
2004
Work: The Practice of Diaspora
Organization: Modern Language Association
Result: 準入選（栄誉言及）
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship
2005
Work: Research project on jazz in New York in the 1970s
Organization: New York Public Library
Result: 受賞（フェローシップ）
Guggenheim Fellowship
2015
Work: The Art of the Lecture (project)
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Result: 受賞
PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Award
2024
Work: Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music (coauthored with Henry Threadgill)
Organization: PEN Oakland
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism

2003 Scholarly monograph (comparative literature/cultural studies)

A scholarly study that argues for the generative potential of translation within Black diasporic networks by examining interactions among Anglophone and Francophone Black writers in the interwar period.

diasporatranslationBlack internationalism

Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies (editor)

2004 Edited volume / academic

An edited collection bringing new perspectives to jazz studies, crossing cultural, historical, and musical scholarship.

jazzcultural studiesmusic history

The Souls of Black Folk (new edition, editor)

2009 Edited edition / critical edition

Edited a new Oxford University Press edition of W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, providing scholarly apparatus and introduction.

race and social critiqueAfrican American literature

Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music (coauthored)

2023 Autobiography / music biography

Co-wrote and edited the autobiography of jazz musician Henry Threadgill, tracing his musical life and creative trajectory.

jazzautobiographymusic culture

Bibliography

  • The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism
  • Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies (editor)
  • The Souls of Black Folk (new edition, editor)
  • Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music (coauthored)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
scholarly, critical, comparative-literature approach
Recurring Motifs
diasporatranslationjazz cultureBlack internationalism

Legacy

Brent Hayes Edwards has made significant contributions to diaspora and translation studies from a comparative literature perspective. His role in authenticating and bringing to light an unknown Claude McKay manuscript has also impacted Harlem Renaissance scholarship.

Academic Societies

  • American Studies Association
  • Society for French Historical Studies

Archives

  • Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (related to Claude McKay manuscript)

Quotes

  • It is a major discovery... It dramatically expands the canon of novels written by Harlem Renaissance writers.
    Source: Henry Louis Gates (as quoted in The New York Times) (2012)

Trivia

  • Involved in authenticating a previously unknown Claude McKay manuscript found in Columbia's collections (2012).
  • Co-wrote and edited Henry Threadgill's autobiography (2023).
  • The Practice of Diaspora received multiple scholarly awards.