{"id":34822,"date":"2024-10-23T21:37:17","date_gmt":"2024-10-24T01:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=34822"},"modified":"2024-10-23T21:46:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T01:46:00","slug":"hecimovichs-biography-of-hannah-crafts-receives-phi-beta-kappa-book-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/hecimovichs-biography-of-hannah-crafts-receives-phi-beta-kappa-book-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Hecimovich\u2019s biography of Hannah Crafts receives Phi Beta Kappa Book Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To say Furman University English Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/gregg-hecimovich\/\">Gregg Hecimovich<\/a> has had a banner year is putting it mildly. Last October, Hecimovich released \u201cThe Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of the Bondwoman\u2019s Narrative,\u201d and the biography of the first known Black woman novelist has since seen a steady stream of awards.<\/p>\n<p>The latest comes from the Phi Beta Kappa society in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbk.org\/awards\/bookawards\/winners-2024\">Christian Gauss Award<\/a>, which celebrates outstanding books in literary scholarship or criticism. Considered one of the most coveted prizes in the field, the Gauss Award joins other honors recognizing \u201cThe Life and Times of Hannah Crafts\u201d:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography<\/li>\n<li>Winner of the American Book Award<\/li>\n<li>Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography<\/li>\n<li>\u201c10 Best Books of 2023\u201d \u2013 The Washington Post<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Upon learning the news of the Gauss Award, Hecimovich said, \u201cI was thrilled,\u201d citing what he called \u201cstunning\u201d works from others on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbk.org\/awards\/bookawards\/short-list-2024\">short list<\/a>. \u201cJust to have my book mentioned in the same league was honor enough,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Hecimovich said the award is particularly meaningful because it recognizes excellence in literary criticism, and for a biography to warrant the prize, it must have a predominantly critical emphasis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have loved the past biographies that have won this award, including Imani Perry\u2019s biography of Lorraine Hansberry,\u201d Hecimovich said. \u201cPerry\u2019s Hansberry biography was one of my inspirations in writing \u2018Life and Times.\u2019 So this award means the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even before the book\u2019s release by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishing, Hecimovich\u2019s book made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/pre-release-praise-for-hecimovichs-book-rolls-in\/\">waves in the literary world<\/a>, notching spots on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/upcoming-book-about-americas-first-black-female-novelist-draws-pre-publication-buzz\/\">The Millions<\/a>\u2019 \u201cmost anticipated books\u201d and on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/books\/story\/2023-08-28\/30-books-we-cant-wait-to-read-this-fall-2023\">Los Angeles Times\u2019<\/a> list of must-reads.<\/p>\n<p>The book explores the authorship of \u201cThe Bondwoman\u2019s Narrative,\u201d a manuscript written between 1856 and 1858 by a then unknown enslaved woman. After being hidden away for 150 years, the manuscript was purchased at auction by Henry Louis Gates Jr. who published it in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>Hecimovich invested 20 years of meticulous research into finding the true identity and life story of the author, Hannah Bond, by scouring archives, poring over bits and pieces of forensic evidence (like watermarks, thimble impressions, and ink varieties), listening to kitchen-table oral histories and combing through a satchel of random papers and letters from descendants of the Wheeler family in North Carolina where Hannah was enslaved.<\/p>\n<p>It was there in Hertford County that Hannah Bond gained rare access to books and literature that propelled her to literacy, fueling her drive to tell her story through a fictional lens. With the likely help of a Wheeler family member, she would escape North to build a new family and new identity as Hannah Crafts, a free woman.<\/p>\n<p>Humbled by the recognition, Hecimovich said, \u201cI want to emphasize that my Hannah Crafts biography owes everything to the descendant communities of Bertie and Hertford County, North Carolina, who generously shared the documents and oral history that allowed me to recover Hannah Crafts\u2019s life story. Community memory is a powerful and shaping force, and it is also an under-utilized source for exploring literary history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Hecimovich\u2019s process and what inspires him in a Furman News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furmans-hecimovich-wins-l-a-times-book-award\/\">story<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>English Professor Gregg Hecimovich&#8217;s &#8220;The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts&#8221; was released last year, and the awards continue to stream in. The latest comes from Phi Beta Kappa in one of the most prized awards in literary criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":34826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[3088,3085,3084,2194,3086,3083,3087,1110],"class_list":["post-34822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","tag-christian-gauss-award","tag-community-memory","tag-hannah-bond","tag-hannah-crafts","tag-henry-louis-gates-jr","tag-oral-histories","tag-phi-beta-kappa-book-awards","tag-slavery"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34822"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34830,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34822\/revisions\/34830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}