PROFESSOR
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
Gerald Early is an essayist, cultural critic, educator and poet. He is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and the Director of the Center for the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. He was formerly Director of African and African American Studies.
Gerald’s publications include One Nation Under A Groove: Motown and American Culture, Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood, Tuxedo Junctions: Essays on American Culture, and The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature and Modern American Culture. He most recently served as series editor for Best African American Essays 2010 (with guest editor Randall Kennedy) and Best African American Fiction 2010 (with guest editor Nikki Giovanni). He has served as a consultant on Ken Burns’ documentary films Baseball, Jazz, Unforgiveable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson and The War and he is a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s Fresh Air. His essays have appeared in numerous editions of Best American Essays Series.
Gerald Early earned an A.B. from the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a Masters Degree and PhD from Cornell University. He has received numerous awards including the Whiting Writer’s Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.