James Emanuel

James Andrew Emanuel (born June 15, 1921) is an African-American poet and academic.. Emanuel is ranked by some critics as among the best contemporary American poets. and most neglected living poets,

James Emanuel. Courtesy AfroPoets.

James Emanuel
Born	June 15, 1921 (1921-06-15) Alliance, Nebraska, United States
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	American

Life

Overview

Emanuel has published more than 300 poems, 13 individual books, an influential anthology of African American literature, an autobiography, and more. He is also credited with creating a new literary genre, jazz-and-blues haiku, often read with musical accompaniment.

Youth and education

Born in Alliance, Nebraska, in 1921, Emanuel was raised in the state. He spent his early years in the western United States where he worked at a variety of jobs.

At age 20 he joined the United States Army, where he served as confidential secretary to the Assistant Inspector General, Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

After his discharge, he did undergraduate work at Howard University, and then earned an M.A. and obtained graduate degrees from Northwestern University (M.A.) and Columbia University (Ph.D.).

Career

Emmanuel moved to New York City and taught at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he is credited with introducing the study of African-American poetry.

Emanuel has also taught at the University of Toulouse (as a Fulbright scholar in 1968-1969), at the University of Grenoble, and at the University of Warsaw.

Emanuel also worked as an editor, with his 1st editorial project being the publication of a collection of poetry by Langston Hughes, whom Emanuel considered his mentor.

Emanuel also edited (with Theodore Gross) the influential anthology of African American literature Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America. The anthology, published in 1968 by Free Press, was one of the first major collections of African American writings. This anthology, and Emanuel's work as an educator, heavily influenced the birth of the African American literature genre. Emanuel has also edited 5 Broadside Critics books (1971-1975) and written a number of critical essays. His other published works include a memoir, The Force and the Reckoning, published in 2001.

He lives in Paris, France.

Writing

Poetry

As a poet, Emanuel has published more than 300 poems and 13 individual books. Emanuel has been called one of the best, and most overlooked, poets of his time. Critics have put forward several reasons for Emanuel's poetry being neglected by the larger literary world, including that Emanuel writes more traditional poetic forms, that he no longer lives in the United States, and that he refuses to take part in the politically correct world of Black academia.

Emanuel is credited with creating a new literary genre, jazz-and-blues haiku, which he has read to musical accompaniment throughout Europe and Africa.

Recognition

Emanual was awarded the Sidney Bechet Creative Award in 1996. He also received the Dean's Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2007 from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and has also been honored with a John Hay Whitney Award, a Saxton Memorial Fellowship, and a Special Distinction Award from the Black American Literature Forum.

In 2000 a collection of Emanuel letters and writings were placed in the United States Library of Congress. Included in the letters were correspondence with Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, Benjamin O. Davis, Ossie Davis, W.E.B. Du Bois, and many others.

Publications

Poetry

• The Treehouse, and other poems. Broadside Press, 1968; recording, Broadside Voices, 1968.
• At Bay, Broadside Press, 1969.
• Panther Man (includes "For 'Mr. Dudley,' a Black Spy"). Broadside Press, 1970; recording, Broadside Voices, 1970.
• Black Man Abroad: The Toulouse Poems. Lotus Press, 1978.
• A Chisel in the Dark: Poems, selected and new. Lotus Press, 1980.
• The Broken Bowl: New and uncollected poems. Lotus Press, 1983.
• A Poet's Mind (edited by Jean McConochie). Regents, 1983.
• Deadly James and other poems. Lotus Press, 1987.
• The Quagmire EffectParis: American College, 1988.
• Whole Grain: Collected poems, 1958-1989. Lotus Press, 1991.
• Reaching for Mumia: 16 haiku. L'insomniaque éditeur, 1995.
• JAZZ from the Haiku King. Broadside Press, 1999.
• The Force and the Reckoning. Lotus Press, 2001.

Non-fiction

• "Emersonian Virtue: A Definition," American Speech, May 1961, pp. 117-122.
• "Langston Hughes' First Short Story: 'Mary Winosky'," Phylon, Fall 1961, pp. 267-272.
• "The Invisible Men of American Literature," Books Abroad, Autumn 1963, pp. 391-394.
• Langston Hughes. Twayne, 1967; 1995.
• (With MacKinlay Kantor and Lawrence Osgood) How I Write / 2. Harcourt Brace, 1972.
• "The Challenge of Black Literature: Notes on Interpretation" in The Black Writer in Africa and the Americas. Hannessey & Ingalls, 1973.

Edited

• (Edited with Theodore L. Gross) Dark Symphony: Negro literature in America. Free Press, 1968.

  

  James A Emanuel reads 3 poems The Negro, The Treehouse, A View from the White Helmet

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Gale Contemporary Black Biography .

See also

• List of U.S. poets

External links

Poems

• "The Negro"
• James Emanuel at AfroPoets (profile & 10 poems)
• James A. Emanuel at PoemHunter (21 poems)

Audio / video

• James Emanuel at YouTube
• Online audio interview with Emanuel
• Nebraska-Born Poet Finds Fame Overseas by Avishay Artsy, Nebraska Public Radio interview with Emanuel

Books

• James A. Emanuel at Amazon.com

About

• James Emanuel, a poet from afar at African American Registry
• James A. Emanuel, A Great American Poet, Turns 90 in Paris at France Revisited.
• Whole Grain: The Collected Poems of James A. Emanuel
• Review of Whole Grain: The Collected Poems of James A. Emanuel