This year’s Benefit for the Humanities features poetry readings by the Cave Canem cofounders Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady as well as a special reading by the Pulitzer Prize—winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen.
Because Ideas
© Copyright 2019 Modern Language Association
The Benefit for the Humanities will be held at the Sheraton Grand in downtown Seattle.
Toi Derricotte
Toi Derricotte's sixth collection of poetry, "I": New and Collected Poems, was published in 2019. Her other books of poetry include The Undertaker's Daughter, which won the 2012 PEN/Voelker Award for Poetry; Tender; and Captivity. Her literary memoir The Black Notebooks won the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Non-fiction and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. With Cornelius Eady, Derricotte cofounded the Cave Canem Foundation. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Pittsburgh and a former chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She and Eady will receive the MLA's Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities at the 2020 convention.
Cornelius Eady
Cornelius Eady is a professor of creative writing and literature at Stony Brook University, Southampton. He is the author of more than a half dozen volumes of poetry, including Brutal Imagination, a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry; and Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, recipient of the Academy of American Poets' Lamont Poetry Prize. Running Man, an opera based on his poetry, was a finalist for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1996, Eady cofounded the Cave Canem Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports emerging African American poets through regional workshops, retreats, book prizes, annual anthologies, and readings throughout the United States.
Show your institution’s commitment to students and faculty members in the humanities by sponsoring the MLA Benefit for the Humanities. Join a wide range of academic institutions and companies that have pledged their support for the study of language, literature, writing, and culture!
To learn more about levels of sponsorship and what your gift will support, please consult the sponsor information sheet or contact us at outreach@mla.org.
The MLA thanks the following sponsors for their generous support of the 2020 Benefit for the Humanities.
Platinum Sponsor $25,000
Friday, 10 January
8:00–10:00 p.m.
Sheraton Grand Seattle
1400 6th Avenue
Cirrus Ballroom, 35th floor
Gold Sponsor $10,000
Silver Sponsor $5,000
Bronze Sponsor $2,500
Participating Sponsor up to $2,500
$438,000
Total raised by Paving the Way between 2016 and 2019
The Cause
HELPING STUDENTS AND CONTINGENT FACULTY MEMBERS
The Benefit for the Humanities was launched in 2017, and since then attendees and donors have contributed more than half of all funding raised in support of the MLA’s Paving the Way campaign. This fund has supported grants for contingent faculty members; programs that encourage educational innovation and improve career opportunities; and lobbying efforts in Washington, DC.
271
Number of grants for students and teachers funded by Paving the Way in 2019
81
Career training fellowships and internships supported by Paving the Way since 2016
"The Connected Academics program gave me much more than a tool box for approaching the complexities of career development . . . this is not a program that tells you what to choose; it's a program that gives you more choices."
Dantzel Cenatiempo, University of Washington
Funded by Paving the Way
Photo of Toi Derricotte by Ted Rosenberg. Photo of Cornelius Eady by John Griffin. Photo of Viet Thanh Nguyen by Bebe Jacobs.
Analyzing complex ideas. Using evidence to construct an argument. Seeing the world through another’s eyes. These are the skills that the humanities teach. And they are essential for building and sustaining a strong civil society.
This is why we invite you to support the fourth annual Benefit for the Humanities.
In just three years, the Benefit for the Humanities has already had a significant effect on the lives of students and teachers.
We will be announcing this year's special guests shortly. Stay tuned!
FEATURED GUESTS
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen is currently University Professor and Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. His novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (best foreign book in France), and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among other awards. His other works include the short story collection The Refugees and two nonfiction books, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and has received fellowships from the ACLS, the Radcliffe Institute for Advance Study, and the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations. His most recent publication is Chicken of the Sea, a children's book written in collaboration with his six-year old son Ellison.
and Ethics Matter
Protect the Future of Humanities Education.
Support the Benefit for the Humanities!
Featured Guests
Location
Sponsors
Cigna
EisnerAmper LLP
George Mason University,
College of Humanities
and Social Sciences
Hamilton College
JDM Benefits
JSTOR
Kerber Gost Agency
New York University, Department of English
New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Ohio State University,
Department of English
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University
Innodata
Rutgers University,
Department of English
TIAA Charitable, Inc.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of English; Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures; College of the Humanities and Fine Arts
University of Michigan, Department of English Language and Literature
University of South Florida,
Department of English
Washington and Lee University
Macalester College
Swarthmore College
Chandrika K. Tandon