{{short description|American writer}} {{infobox writer |name=Reginald McKnight |birth_date={{birth date and age|1956|2|26}} |birth_place=Fürstenfeldbruck, Bavaria, Germany |occupation={{flatlist| *Short story writer *novelist }} |nationality=American |education=Pikes Peak Community College (AA)<br>Colorado College (BA)<br>University of Denver (MA) |awards=Drue Heinz Literature Prize (1988)<br>Whiting Award (1995) }} '''Reginald McKnight''' (born February 26, 1956) is an American short story writer and novelist.
==Life== McKnight was born February 26, 1956, in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany, to an Air Force family; therefore, he moved around a lot in childhood, although he calls Colorado home.<ref name="Champion" /> He earned degrees from Pikes Peak Community College (A.A.), Colorado College (B.A.) and University of Denver (M.A.); he is also Phi Beta Kappa and received an honorary doctorate from Colorado College.<ref name="UGANews" />
As a teacher, McKnight has been a professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He also taught at the University of Pittsburgh, but left when he learned that other faculty told racist jokes about black people when he wasn't in their presence.<ref name="Kenyon">{{Cite journal |last=Walsh |first=William |year=1994 |title=We Are, in Fact, a Civilization: An Interview with Reginald McKnight |journal=The Kenyon Review |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=27–42 |jstor=4337030}}</ref> As of 2002, he is the Hamilton Holmes Professor of English at the University of Georgia in Athens;<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.archwaytoexcellence.uga.edu/news/050415/mcknight.html |title=Archway eNews: Recruiting and retaining top faculty |publisher=University of Georgia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404160533/http://www.archwaytoexcellence.uga.edu/news/050415/mcknight.html |archive-date=2007-04-04 |access-date=2007-04-22}}</ref> he was also the first person to hold that position.<ref name="UGANews">{{Cite web |url=http://www.uga.edu/news/newsbureau/releases/2002releases/0203/020312mcknight.html |title=Noted Writer Regianld McKnight to Become Hamilton Holmes Professor at UGA; Honors Pioneer of Campus Integration |last=Williams |first=Phil |publisher=University of Georgia News Bureau |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051101120445/http://www.uga.edu/news/newsbureau/releases/2002releases/0203/020312mcknight.html |archive-date=1 November 2005 |access-date=1 April 2011}}</ref>
McKnight has had two extended stays in Africa, teaching English in Dakar, Senegal, from 1981 to 1982, and another in 1985 as part of a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.<ref name="Champion">{{Cite book |last=Champion |first=Laurie |title=Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook |publisher=Greenwood |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-313-30501-6 |editor-last=Emmanuel Sampath Nelson |pages=314–318 |chapter=Reginald McKnight}}</ref> He says that "he didn't truly consider himself a writer until he went to Africa", partly because that he was writing intensely for several hours a day while he was there, and also because, as he states, "when I left that place I had done something to myself in a really profound way--imprinted myself with the written word in ways that I hadn't prior to that".<ref name="Ashe">{{Cite journal |last=Ashe |first=Bertram D. |year=2001 |title='Under the Umbrella of Black Civilization': A Conversation with Reginald McKnight - Interview |url=https://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_3_35/ai_79758786/?tag=content;col1 |journal=African American Journal |volume=35 |issue=3 |access-date=1 April 2011}}</ref> He also states that after a few weeks there, he became more aware of what he calls his "Africanness" by recognizing the same cadences in the voices of Senegalese women that he knew listening to his mother and his aunts growing up.<ref name="Sachs">{{Cite news |last=Sachs |first=Sylvia |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=JeYhAAAAIBAJ&pg=6175,2774866&dq=reginald-mcknight&hl=en |title=Ex-Marine awarded 1988 Drue Heinz Literary Prize |date=7 April 1988 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |access-date=1 April 2011}}</ref>
==Awards== * O. Henry Award * 1988 Drue Heinz Literature Prize * 1995 Whiting Award
==Works== * {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7B6z6fJIORAC&q=Reginald+McKnight |title=He Sleeps |publisher=Macmillan |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-312-42104-5}} (reprint) * {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/moustaphaseclips00mckn |title=Moustapha's Eclipse |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-8229-3589-6}} * {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/igetonbusnovel00mckn |title=I Get on the Bus |publisher=Little, Brown |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-316-56055-9 |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/kindoflightthats00mckn |title=The Kind of Light that Shines on Texas |publisher=Little, Brown |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-316-56056-6}} * {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/whiteboysstories0000mckn |title=White Boys |publisher=Henry Holt and Co. |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8050-6171-0 |url-access=registration}}
===Editor=== * {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw00regi |title=African American Wisdom |publisher=New World Library |year=1994 |isbn=978-1-880032-34-3}} * {{Cite book |title=Wisdom of the African World |publisher=New World Library |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-880032-56-5}}
===Anthologies=== *{{Cite book |title=New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, 1992, Volume 2002 |publisher=Algonquin Books |year=1992 |isbn=978-1-56512-011-2 |editor-last=Shannon Ravenel |chapter=Quitting Smoking |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2fr9FicYlIgC&dq=Reginald+McKnight&pg=PA152}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/reginald-mcknight#/ Profile at The Whiting Foundation]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McKnight, Reginald}} Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:African-American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:Writers from Colorado Springs, Colorado Category:University of Georgia faculty Category:University of Michigan faculty Category:American male short story writers Category:African-American short story writers Category:20th-century American short story writers Category:21st-century American short story writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:Novelists from Michigan Category:Novelists from Colorado Category:Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:20th-century African-American writers Category:21st-century African-American writers Category:African-American male writers
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