Elizabeth Nunez
American novelist (1944–2024)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elizabeth Nunez (18 February 1944 – 8 November 2024) was a Trinidadian-American novelist academic who was a Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College, New York City.
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Elizabeth Nunez | |
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Nunez in 2016 | |
| Born | 18 February 1944 Cocorite, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Died | 8 November 2024 (aged 80) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Professor |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Marian College (BA) New York University (MA, PhD) |
| Genres | Novel, memoir |
| Signature | |
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Her novels have won a number of awards: Prospero's Daughter received The New York Times Editors' Choice and 2006 Novel of the Year from Black Issues Book Review,[1] Bruised Hibiscus won the 2001 American Book Award,[2] and Beyond the Limbo Silence won the 1999 Independent Publishers Book Award.[3]
In addition, Nunez was shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Discretion;[1] Boundaries was selected as a New York Times Editors' Choice and nominated for a 2012 NAACP Image Award; and Anna In-Between was selected for the 2010 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for literary excellence as well as a New York Times Editors' Choice, and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal.[4] Nunez is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby.[5]
Biography
Early life
Nunez was born in Cocorite, Trinidad, on 18 February 1944.[6][7] She began writing as early as nine years of age and won the first-place prize for the "Tiny Tots" writing contest in the Trinidad Guardian.[8] She emigrated from Trinidad to the United States after completing high school at the age of 19 in 1963.[1]
Career overview
Having arrived in the United States aged 19, Nunez earned a BA in English from Marian College in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and an MA and PhD in Literature from New York University.[8] She began teaching at Medgar Evers College in 1972, a year after the college was established, and was instrumental in developing its writing curriculum.[8] She was a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, where she taught courses on Caribbean Women Writers and Creative Writing.[9]
The author of eight novels, she was also co-editor with Jennifer Sparrow of Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, co-editor with Brenda M. Greene of the collection of essays Defining Ourselves: Black Writers in the 90s,[10] and author of several monographs of literary criticism.[1] Her memoir "Discovering my Mother" was published in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby.[5]
In addition to developing her writing and teaching career, Nunez developed programming to support other writers of color. She was the co-founder of the National Black Writers Conference,[11] which received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Reed Foundation under her direction as its co-director from 1986 to 2000. Nunez also hosted a radio program on WBAI 99.5FM and is chair of the PEN Open Book Award Committee.[1]
Nunez was also the Executive Producer of the 2004 New York Emmy-nominated CUNY TV series Black Writers in America.[1]
Her 2010 novel, Anna In Between, earned her critical acclaim.[12] Publishers Weekly praised it for "[the] expressive prose and convincing characters that immediately hook the reader" and for handling family conflicts and immigration identity vividly.[13] Her final novels were Not for Everyday Use (2014) and Now Lila Knows (2022).[14]
Death
Nunez died on 8 November 2024 from complications of a stroke at her home in Brooklyn, New York, at the age of 80.[14]
