Anand Prahlad

Anand Prahlad
Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
Education

BA  1974, Virginia Commonwealth University

MA  1980, University of California, Berkeley

PhD 1991, University of California, Los Angeles

Research and Teaching

Creative writing (poetry and creative nonfiction), folklore of the African Diaspora, the proverb, disability studies, culture studies, film studies. Intersections between race, gender, and embodiment.  https://www.prahladauthor.com

Anand Prahlad is a poet, creative nonfiction writer, editor, scholar, song writer, and musician. He is the author of two books of poems, Hear My Story and Other Poems (Berkeley Poets Cooperative and Press, 1980), and As Good As Mango (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2012). He has published widely in American literary journals and is author of the memoir, The Secret Life of a Black Aspie, (University of Alaska Press, 2017), which won the Permafrost Book Prize in Nonfiction. In addition to his creative work, he has published two scholarly books on black folklore, African American Proverbs in Context (University Press of Mississippi, 1996) and Reggae Wisdom: Proverbs in Jamaican Music (University Press of Mississippi, 2001), and has authored many journal articles on topics in African American and Caribbean folklore. Prahlad has also edited two encyclopedias, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore, 3 volumes (Greenwood Press, 2005), and African American Folklore: An Encyclopedia for Students, 1 volume (Greenwood Press, 2016). Prahlad is currently working on two manuscripts of poems, My Life as a Banned Book, and How Do You Get the Girl Out of the Box, both of which explore intersections of disability, gender fluid identity, and blackness. He is also working on a second book of creative nonfiction, Canaan’s Hill, a hybrid text that connects his family lineage on a Virginia plantation to contemporary political and personal topics. Prahlad is also compiling an anthology of poems by black poets that reflect perspectives on disabilities, tentatively titled The Tenders.

Awards and Honors

Curators Distinguished Teaching Professor 2018

Permafrost Nonfiction Book Prize 2017

William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence 2010

Mizzou Alumni Association Faculty Award 2009

Mizzou Inclusive Excellence Award 2008

Storytelling World Award 2007 Honor Title (For Encyclopedia of African American Folklore)

The New York Public Library Best of Reference Award 2006 (for encyclopedia)

Woodhouse Award 2006

Gold Chalk Teaching Award 2000

Selected Publications

“How Do You Get the Girl Out of The Box” The Southampton Review (Fall 2018)

“A Molecule of Birch,” “Creation,” “Ponies,” “Askew,” “My Shadow’s Inflection,” and Zephyrs” Nine Mile Magazine (Fall, 2018)

“Psalm” Hot Metal Bridge (Spring, 2018)

“dance hall stylee,” and “Tutti Frutti” The Vassar Review (Spring 2018)

“African American Folklore and Race,” in Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklore Studies, ed., Simon Bronner. (Oxford University Press, 2018).

The Secret Life of a Black Aspie: A Memoir, University of Alaska Press (2017)

“Venice Beach” Wordgathering (Winter, 2016)

“The Whipping” Pleiades (Spring 2016)

“The Platoon” Copper Nickel, (2016)

African American Folklore: An Encyclopedia for Students, ed. (Greenwood Press, 2016)

“Funny or Not: Proverbial Expressions in ‘The Successful Black Man’ Internet Meme,” Bis dat, qui cito dat: Gegengabe in Paremiology, Folklore, Language, and Literature, eds. Keven McKenna and Christian Grandi. (Peter Lang, 2014, pp. 331-341)

“Seeing Is Believing: Born With the Spirits” Fifth Wednesday Journal (Fall 2013)

“Growing Up With the Spirits” Water~Stone Review (2013-14).

As Good as Mango, Stephen F. Austin State University Press (2012)