Melba Joyce Boyd

Melba Joyce Boyd

Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd is a distinguished professor in African American Studies at Wayne State University and an award-winning author of 13 books, nine of which are poetry. Boyd’s critically acclaimed and widely reviewed, "Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper, 1825-1911," was the first comprehensive study on Harper. Boyd’s poetry, essays and creative nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, academic journals, cultural periodicals and newspapers in the United States and Europe. She has a Doctor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan and B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from Western Michigan University.

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

• African American literature

• African American cinema

• Poetry

• Documentary film

• Biographer

Research

• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1922), African American Poet and Activist
• Dudley Randall (1914-2000) African American Poet and Publisher
• Essays on the African American Cinematic Experience

Education

• Doctor of Arts in English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, 1979
• M.A. in English Language and Literature, Western Michigan University, 1972
• B.A. in English Language and Literature, Western Michigan University, 1971

Awards and grants

• 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist, Elected to The Academy of Scholars
• "Death Dance of a Butterfly" received the 2013 Library of Michigan Notable Books Award for Poetry
• "Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the "Broadside Press" received the 2005 Honor for Nonfiction from The Black Caucus of the American Library Association
• "Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall" received the 2010 Independent Publishers Award, the 2010 Library of Michigan Notable Books Award for Poetry, and was a finalist for the 2010 NAACP Image Award for Poetry and the 2010 ForeWord Award for Poetry
• The Sojourner Meritorious Award for Community Service
• National Conference of Artist Award
• Charles H. Wright Museum's Women's Award
  

News mentions

• Detroit abounds in the work of a local poet who became world famous

Selected publications

• "Frances E. W. Harper in the Situation of Ishmael," Cambridge Companion to American Literature of the Renaissance, Harvard University Press, 2016
• "Waiting for Smokey," Heaven Was Detroit (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016)
• Death Dance of a Butterfly (Ferndale, MI: Past Tents Press, 2012
• Roses and Revolutions: The Selected Writings of Dudley Randall (WSU Press, 2009)
• Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004
• Star by Star: The Poetry and Publishing of Naomi Long Madgett, Co-Producer, 2009, documentary film
• The Black Unicorn: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press, Documentary film, 1996
• Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper (WSU Press, 1994)

Citation index

• Oxford Companion to African American Literature
• Who's Who in American Literature
• ResearchGate

Courses taught by Melba Joyce Boyd

Fall Term 2023

• AFS3200 - The African-American Film Experience

Winter Term 2023

• AFS3200 - The African-American Film Experience
• AFS3500 - Special Topics: Literacy, Race, and Urban Society
• COM3230 - The African-American Film Experience

Fall Term 2022

• AFS3200 - The African-American Film Experience
• COM3230 - The African-American Film Experience

Winter Term 2022

• AFS2010 - African American Culture: Historical and Aesthetic Roots
• AFS3200 - The African-American Film Experience
• COM3230 - The African-American Film Experience