Email Email jerald_walker@emerson.edu

A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Jerald Walker has published in magazines such as Creative Nonfiction, The Missouri Review, The Harvard Review, Mother Jones, The Iowa Review, and The Oxford American, and he has been widely anthologized, including five times in The Best American Essays. Walker is the author of Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption, recipient of the 2011 PEN New England/L.L. Winship Award for Nonfiction and named a Best Memoir of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, and The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult. His latest book, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays was a Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction, and winner of the 2020 Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and James A. Michener Foundation. His latest book, Magically Black and Other Essays, will be published in September, 2024.

 

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About

Education

B.A., University of Iowa
M.F.A., University of Iowa
Ph.D., University of Iowa

Publications

Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion and Redemption

2010

The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult

2016

How to Make a Slave and Other Essays

2019

Magically Black and Other Essays

2024

Grants

National Endowment for the Arts

2018

Awards & Honors

PEN New England/L.L. Winship Award for Nonfiction (Street Shadows)

2011

Best Memoir of the Year, Kirkus Reviews (Street Shadows)

2011

Finalist for the National Book Award (How to Make a Slave and Other Essays)

2020

Pushcart Prize ("Kaleshion")

2021

Best American Essays ("Dragon Slayers")

2007

Best American Essays ("The Mechanics of Being")

2009

Best American Essays ("Unprepared")

2011

Best American Essays ("Inauguration")

2014

Best American Essays ("How to Make a Slave")

2017

Best American Essays ("Breathe")

2020

Winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction (How to Make a Slave and Other Essays)

2021

Guggenheim Fellowship

2022