New book brings Nellie McKay out of the shadows
The late UW–Madison professor’s groundbreaking work illuminated literature by Black women, but her own life was largely private.
May 3, 2021 7:00 AM Doug Moe
Updated:
New book Half in Shadow reveals the life and legacy of former UW–Madison professor Nellie McKay.
Nellie McKay spent much of her distinguished career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison charting and celebrating African American literature, in particular the work of African American women.
When McKay died, in 2006, a UW–Madison colleague, Craig Werner, told the New York Times that McKay “was the central figure in the establishing of Black women’s studies as a presence in academic and intellectual life.”
Into the Light with Life Writing: Nellie Y. McKay and the Literary Legacies of Black Feminism
April 12 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Nellie Y. McKay (1930–2006)
was a pivotal figure in contemporary American letters. The author of several books, McKay is best known for coediting the canon-making Norton Anthology of African American Literature with Henry Louis Gates Jr., a collection that helped secure a place for the scholarly study of Black writing that had been ignored by white academia.
However, there is more to McKay’s life and legacy than her literary scholarship. After her passing, new details about McKay’s life emerged, surprising everyone who knew her. Why did McKay choose to hide so many details of her past?
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