Dr. Brenda Greene wins prestigious American Book Award

By David Gil de Rubio | dgilderubio@mec.cuny.edu

Dr. Brenda M. Greene was recently named to receive the 2024 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her “Book Review: Erasure by Percival Everett, The Basis for the Film American Fiction” in Our Times Press.

The Before Columbus Foundation (BCF) is a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature.

According to the organization’s website, “the goals of BCA are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing.”

The BCF’s goals gibe well with Dr. Greene’s impressive accomplishments. She is the founder and executive director of the Center for Black Literature and director of the National Black Writers Conference.

Her scholarship is in African-American literature, composition, and English education and she has written extensive essays, grants, book reviews, and presentations in these areas in the 40-plus years that she’s provided educational leadership within Medgar Evers College, CUNY and her professional community.