Dr. George Hutchinson

Biography

George Hutchinson’s teaching and research focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, American racial culture, and literary ecology. He directs the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines. His recent book, 'Facing the Abyss: American Literature and Culture in the 1940s', was a finalist for the Phi Beta Kappa’s Christian Gauss Award and the MLA’s Matei Calinescu Prize. His book 'Search for Nella Larsen: Biography of the Color Line' won the Christian Gauss Award and was selected as a Washington Post Editor’s Choice in 2007. Hutchinson received the bronze medal biography from the Independent Publishers Book Awards and his work was named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice. His publication 'Harlem Renaissance: Black and White' was a finalist for the Rea Nonfiction Prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He has won the Darwin Turner Prize from the African American Literature Division of the MLA and has edited four books and a journal special issue on African American literature. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities and is currently working on a memoir about his experience in a well-digging project in Zéguedéguin, Burkina Faso during the 1970s, as well as a biography of Jean Toomer to be published by Yale University Press.

Research Interests

Courses