Courtney Thorsson

Courtney Thorsson is a Professor of English at the University of Oregon. She teaches, studies, and writes about African American literature from its beginnings to the present. Her first book Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women’s Novels (2013) studies novels by Toni Cade Bambara, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison. Her writing has appeared in publications including Callaloo; African American Review; MELUS; Gastronomica; Contemporary Literature; Legacy; and Public Books. Her second book, The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture tells the story of how Black women writers and intellectuals transformed political, literary, and academic cultures from the 1970s. She is the recipient of a Public Scholars Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of The Sisterhood.