Guggenheim recipient to focus on Poe, literary nationalism
BATON ROUGE -- The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced recently the 2001 Guggenheim fellows. Among the recipients is Louisiana State University Professor of English J. Gerald "Jerry" Kennedy.
Kennedy is one of two recipients from Louisiana and 183 total recipients. He was awarded the fellowship for his latest project, a book titled Inventing America's Story: Literary Nationalism in the Age of Poe.
According to Kennedy, the work-in-progress is a wide-ranging study of author Edgar Allan Poe, his generation and the problems they faced in creating an "American" literature. In addition to the story of America constructed by the dominant Euro-American culture, Kennedy said he is including the narratives of Native Americans and escaped slaves, who, he said, had a very different sense of America, its history and its possibilities.
"I'm ecstatic about the Guggenheim, not only because of the practical support it will provide in completing my project but for the recognition that it brings to LSU," Kennedy said.
Notable for the number of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners it has supported over the years, the Guggenheim is distinguished from other fellowships of its kind in the diversity of the fields it recognizes. This year's recipients represent the fields of history, philosophy, economics, physics, mathematics, psychology, chemistry, art history, political science, biology and literature. Not limited to university scholars, many fellows are writers, photographers, film makers, choreographers, composers, painters and poets.
Named a William A. Read Professor in 1997 and a Distinguished Research Master at LSU in 1999, Kennedy has made numerous contributions to his field and to the university. Kennedy served as chair of the LSU English department from 1995 to 1998. He was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities summer stipend and, in 1982, was awarded a Pushcart Prize for one of his essays.
Kennedy's books include Poe, Death and the Life of Writing (Yale, 1987) and the recently published Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe (Oxford, 2001).
To view an entire list of 2001 Guggenheim fellows, visit www.gf.org/01fellow.html#top.
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Contact Jennifer MelanconLSU News Service, Feature Writer225 578-5685[email protected]
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