Contributed Photo: Corey Thomas, CJ Thomas Imaging via Friends of Literacy
Earl Braggs, Herman H. Battle Professor of African American Studies, can now add “Hall of Fame Inductee” to his impressive list of Honors and Awards.
He was recently honored at a Friends of Literacy banquet where he was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame in the Poetry category.
Braggs is also the recipient of the Anhinga Poetry Prize, the Jack Keuroc Literary Prize, the Gloucester Country College Poetry Prize, UTNAA Outstanding Teacher Award, and two Student Government Association Outstanding Professor Awards.
As a poet, Braggs revels in examining the “psychology of what we talk about.” That investigation is exactly what he is doing in his upcoming publication Ugly Love. The collection of poetry examines the “love/hate relation many white Americans have with black Americans.”
“My inspiration stems from my want to get what constitutes racism, the nuances of, into the present day narrative,” said Braggs.
Ugly Love, slated to be released through C&R Press later this fall, joins his recent publications including, Younger than Neil, Syntactical Arrangements of a Twisted Wind, and Oliver’s Breakfast.
Read more about Braggs’s honors here: Earl Braggs named finalist in international poetry competition.
