- Carolivia Herron
Carolivia Herron (born
July 22 ,1947 ) is an Americanwriter of children's and adult literature, and a scholar ofAfrican-American Judaica .Personal life
She was born to Oscar Smith Herron and Georgia Carol (Johnson) Herron, in
Washington D.C. Herron, who is Black, converted to
Judaism in adulthood, and claims paternal-line Jewish descent from her grandmother via Jewish Geechees.She is a founding member of "
Jews of African Descent."Education
She has a
B.A. in English from Eastern Baptist College inPennsylvania (nowEastern University ). She earned an M.A. in English fromVillanova University in 1973, and an MFA increative writing and aPh.D. incomparative literature andliterary theory from theUniversity of Pennsylvania .Herron spent a
postdoctoral research year atBrandeis University investigating the subject ofAfrican American Jews .Writing
Her debut novel, "Thereafter Johnnie", a semi-autobiographical portrayal of
African-American life, was critically well-received.Her critically-acclaimed picture book "Nappy Hair", a call and response story based on her own experiences as a child, was the cause of massive controversy when a
New York City public school teacher was accused of racism after using it in the classroom.Herron edited the papers of
Angelina Weld Grimke forOxford University Press .Many of her writings, including her
multimedia novel in progress, "Asenath and OurSong of Songs ," refer to the intersections betweenJudaic andAfrican cultures.Her latest children's book, "Always an Olivia," recounts the coming of Herron’s Jewish ancestors from Tripoli, Libya, to the Georgia Sea Islands in the Americas.
Teaching
Herron has taught literature at many institutions, including
Harvard University ,Mount Holyoke College ,Brandeis University , and Marien N'Guabi University inBrazzaville ,Republic of the Congo .She also teaches children directly.
cholarship
Her scholarship includes work on
African-American Judaica .Her scholarship also includes work on
children's literature , multicultural literature, andStar Trek .Herron is currently developing Epicenter Stories to assist in her work with children,
literacy , andmulticulturalism .Bibliography
Adult
"Thereafter Johnnie", 1991
Children's
"Nappy Hair", 1997
"Always an Olivia", 2007
Non-fiction
"Selected works of Angelina Weld Grimké", 1991
References
*'Carolivia Herron.' "Notable
Black American Women", Book 3. Gale Group, 2002.External links
* [http://www.carolivia.org/ Author's personal site]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
