Elizabeth McHenry

Candidate statement

Elizabeth McHenry, Professor, Department of English, New York University. My research focuses on African American literature and Black print culture. I am especially interested in mining the archives of black print to uncover lost, forgotten, or overlooked traces of African American literary history and using these to piece together the contexts in which literary texts were produced, distributed, and read. My first book, Forgotten Readers (SHARP Book History Prize winner 2003), examines the history of Black readers in the context of their organized literary practices. Writing that book left me out of synch with most literary scholars. Finding SHARP as a young researcher led me into a community that fully understood and appreciated my work. Early support from the generous and engaged audiences at SHARP’s intimate conferences enriched my work and shaped my identity as a book historian. The organization sustained me, long before the history of authorship, publishing and reading felt like appropriate interests for a young Black scholar of African American literature. My next book is forthcoming, making this a good time for me to take on a leadership role as a member of SHARP’s Board. I will work to ensure that SHARP is a professional organization that is not only open to diversity, but one that actively seeks to diversify its ranks. SHARP aims to be a global society; but one example of where it needs to cultivate greater representation is among scholars whose research illuminates the histories of authorship, readers and publications across the Black diaspora.