Jesse McCarthy

For the Toronto municipal politician, see Jesse O. McCarthy.
Not to be confused with Jesse McCartney.

Jesse McCarthy
Occupation(s)Assistant Professor of English and of African and African American Studies
EmployerHarvard University
Known forEssayist

Jesse McCarthy is an American essayist, cultural critic, and assistant professor in English and African-American studies at Harvard University.[1]

Publications

Cultural criticism

McCarthy has published on topics including the representation of women in the civil rights movement in film.[2]

Non-fiction

He is the author of Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?, an essay collection addressing questions such as: “What do people owe each other when debts accrued can never be repaid?”[3]

Fiction

His debut novel, The Fugitivities, was released June 2021.[4][5] It's the story of Jonah Winters, a young black man forming his identity, with parts of the story in Brooklyn, Brazil, Montevideo and Paris.[5] He cites Gustave Flaubert's Sentimental Education as an important source of inspiration.[5]

Editor

  • Minor Notes Volume 1 (Penguin, 2023), with an introduction by Tracy K Smith
  • The Souls of Black Folk (Norton Library, 2022)

Awards

McCarthy was recipient of a literary Whiting Award 2022 ($50,000) in the category non-fiction for his essay collection Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? granted by the Whiting Foundation in Brooklyn, New York City.[6]

References

  1. ^ Walker, Jerald (March 26, 2021). "To This Essayist and Cultural Critic, the Black Tradition Is Resistance". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  2. ^ Lott, Martha (2017). "The Relationship Between the 'Invisibility' of African American Women in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s and Their Portrayal in Modern Film". Journal of Black Studies. 48 (4): 331–54.
  3. ^ "Book review of Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?: Essays by Jesse McCarthy". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 25, 2022. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  4. ^ "Briefly Noted". The New Yorker. June 16, 2021. Archived from the original on October 25, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "In Jesse McCarthy's Debut Novel, A Young Black Man Goes In Search Of Himself". NPR.org. Archived from the original on October 29, 2021. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  6. ^ "Jesse McCarthy 2022 Winner in Nonfiction". whiting.org. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022.


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