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Eddie Glaude wins 2021 Stowe Prize for ‘Begin Again’

Eddie Glaude
Sameer Khan / Fotobuddy
Courtesy of Dionne Worthy

Chair of the African American Studies (AAS) department Eddie S. Glaude GS ’97 won the 2021 Stowe Prize for his most recent book, titled “Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.” 

According to a press release from the AAS department, “The Stowe Prize recognizes a distinguished book of general adult fiction or non-fiction that illuminates a critical social justice issue in contemporary society in the United States.”

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Glaude said his inspiration for writing the book is deeply intertwined with activism and social justice causes.

“I think it was the moment, the political moment, trying to come to terms with my own despair, my own disillusion that at least a portion of the country had voted for Donald Trump and I was like ‘here we go again,’” Glaude said. 

“I was also motivated to write for those [Black Lives Matter] activists who had risked everything in Ferguson and Baltimore, and for them to risk everything and to see the country choose Trump,” he continued.

Glaude said we are currently living through a moment which must be documented.

“America refuses to grow up,” he said. “We find ourselves in this moment, where it’s a reckoning of sorts, and we are having to face the inevitable question: Will we grow up or will we double down on our safety and our illusions?”

Glaude explained he intended this book to be for the activists as much as it was meant for himself. 

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“It was an attempt to write a book for them and to write myself out of a kind of despair. And I knew Baldwin had experienced some of this, and so I just returned to him, and there I found ‘Begin Again.’”

When asked which part of the process was most rewarding, Glaude said, “The entire book was rewarding.”

Likewise, Glaude noted challenging moments when writing the book, especially in that confronting Baldwin meant confronting oneself.

“[Baldwin] was always right there. Right where they are. Right where the future of the country is. Right where young folk are. The most difficult part was that Baldwin is an exacting companion. He requires a certain kind of introspection and honesty with yourself,” Glaude said.

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“He was constantly demanding of me to deal with my own wounds, my own fragility. And once I grappled with that honestly, the sentences started dancing on the page.”

Glaude explained that he intended for the book to serve as a book-of-record, giving an insider’s view into what this moment in history was like. He hopes future readers look upon this book and learn a lesson from it about the past.

“[What] I’m reading with Baldwin is that we have to confront the ugliness of who we are if we’re ever going to leave this behind,” Glaude said.

“And I think that’s the lesson. Bear witness. Tell the truth to the suffering that is out there … And hopefully that’ll open up space for us to imagine ourselves otherwise.”

In terms of where he believes America is headed, Glaude said that it is too early to tell.

“I don’t know yet...I’m so delighted to see the back of Donald Trump’s head, that’s a good thing. But we’ve already heard the murmurings of turning the page, of a nostalgic longing for normalcy before Donald Trump, not understanding that what was before Donald Trump actually were the conditions for the possibility of Donald Trump. The verdict is not in.”

Glaude is currently working on another book, intended to serve as the third in a trilogy consisting of “Democracy in Black” and “Begin Again.” He explained that his next book will focus on “the choice to be otherwise. We have a choice that we have to confront after all of this. After all that we’ve been through.”