William J. Maxwell, professor of English and of African and African-American studies in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won a 2016 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for “F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature” (2015).
Drawing on nearly 14,000 pages of newly released FBI files, “F.B. Eyes” exposes the five decades the bureau policed African-American poems, plays, essays and novels. Though the bureau’s official aim was to anticipate political unrest, Maxwell reveals how this surveillance — which began with the Harlem renaissance and continued until Hoover’s death — influenced both the creation and public reception of 20th-century African-American literature.
The Before Columbus Foundation is dedicated to promoting and disseminating contemporary American multicultural literature. The American Book Awards recognize outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community.
Maxwell will receive the honor Sunday, Oct. 30, during a ceremony at the San Francisco Jazz Center.