{"id":469,"date":"2019-04-25T01:37:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T01:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/?page_id=469"},"modified":"2019-04-25T17:41:42","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T17:41:42","slug":"mecca-jamilah-sullivan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/mecca-jamilah-sullivan\/","title":{"rendered":"Mecca Jamilah Sullivan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. From http:\/\/www.meccajamilahsullivan.com\/bio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biography<\/h1>\n

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D, is a former Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst, and is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Bryn Mawr College. She received her Ph.D in English Literature from University of Pennsylvania, as well as an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Temple University and a B.A. in Afro-American Studies from Smith College. She was born and raised in Harlem, New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

An accomplished fiction and scholarly writer, Sullivan has received numerous awards, scholarships, and fellowships for her work. Among these awards are the Charles Johnson Fiction Award and the James Baldwin Memorial Playwriting Award. She is also the recipient of the Gaius Charles Bolin dissertation fellowship from Williams College, the Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American and African Diaspora Literature from Rutgers University, and a 2011 Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Center for Fiction in New York City.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of Sullivan\u2019s work, in terms of fiction, centers around sexuality and identity within the African Diaspora, often with a touch of magical realism. Her most recent work, <\/span>Blue Talk and Love<\/span><\/i>, is a multi-genre collection of short stories that explores the lives of several Black women and girls and the trials and triumphs that they face through magical realism, historical fiction, and satire. <\/span>Blue Talk and Love <\/span><\/i>was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her critical and scholarly work has appeared in numerous publications such as <\/span>American Quarterly; Palimpsest: Journal of Women, Gender, and the Black International; \u00a0The Scholar and Feminist;<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>American Literary History<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sullivan continues to write thought-provoking and emotionally impactful short fiction and critical essays and is currently working on a project titled T<\/span>he Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Selected Bibliography<\/h1>\n

Essays and Articles<\/h3>\n

How to Be Black in the Age of Obama, George Zimmerman, and Paula Deen: Notes From Summer, 2013 <\/span><\/a>(link): <\/span>The Feminist Wire<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>Ebony.com<\/span><\/i> (Reprint) <\/span>The Root<\/span><\/i> (Reprint)<\/span><\/p>\n

Black Queer Gender and Pariah\u2019s \u201cGrand Swagger\u201d<\/span><\/a> (link): <\/span>The Feminist Wire.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cUnsayable Secrets\u201d of Diaspora\u2019s Bodily History<\/span><\/a> (link): <\/span>(Roundtable essay on M. NourbeSe Philip). <\/span>Jacket2.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Short Stories<\/h3>\n

\u201cPowder and Smoke\u201d in <\/span>BLOOM<\/span><\/i>, 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSererie\u201d in <\/span>Callaloo<\/span><\/i>, 2010<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWall Woman\u201d in <\/span>Woman\u2019s Work<\/span><\/i>, 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

Blue Talk and Love<\/span><\/i>, 2015. (Short story anthology)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Anvil\u201d in <\/span>Feminist Studies<\/span><\/i>, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

Websites and Social Media<\/h3>\n

Website: <\/span>http:\/\/www.meccajamilahsullivan.com\/<\/span><\/a> (link)<\/span><\/p>\n

Twitter: <\/span>https:\/\/twitter.com\/mecca_jamilah<\/span><\/a> (link)<\/span><\/p>\n

Facebook: <\/span>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/meccajamilahsullivan\/<\/span><\/a> (link)<\/span><\/p>\n