University of Georgia poet and scholar Ed Pavlić was named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, according to an April 16 announcement. Pavlić, who serves as Distinguished Research Professor of English and African American Studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is among 223 individuals selected for the fellowship from nearly 5,000 applicants.
The Guggenheim Fellowship is considered a significant honor for professionals in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The award recognizes prior achievements as well as future promise in creative fields.
“Ed Pavlić’s selection as a Guggenheim Fellow is a remarkable honor and a powerful affirmation of the scope and significance of his work,” said Benjamin C. Ayers, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “Through scholarship and creative practice of extraordinary depth and cultural importance, he exemplifies the highest standards of excellence in the humanities and brings significant distinction to the University of Georgia.”
Guggenheim Fellowships are administered by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Recipients receive funding that allows them to pursue independent work at what organizers describe as “the highest level under the freest conditions.” Pavlić has written thirteen books including poetry collections, a novel, critical studies on literature, music, film, as well as essays published in more than sixty magazines focused on African American life.
In recent years much of his writing has centered on James Baldwin—himself a former Guggenheim Fellow—who was known both for his literary contributions and civil rights activism. Pavlić is currently working with Henry Holt & Company on “Darker than Blue: A Radical Life of James Baldwin,” which will draw from archival material across America including four decades’ worth of letters between Baldwin and his brother David that have not previously been available to scholars.
“I’m immensely grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation,” Pavlić said. “This support is like pure oxygen for a writer like me — the contemplative space and uninterrupted focus enabled by this utterly unique kind of support will benefit ‘Darker Than Blue’ in ways impossible to forecast. The fellowship will directly enhance my ability to script encounters with this crucial figure, his incredible work as well as the eras he engaged in such powerful and unique ways. In learning more about the great artists, and Baldwin is one of the greatest, we learn things that are otherwise impossible to discern about ourselves and each other.”
With support from this fellowship, Pavlić expects to complete his book by 2028.
“Ed is a prolific scholar whose work on Baldwin has illuminated the complexity of this great artist,” said Anna Stenport, dean of Franklin College. “I’m so proud that the Guggenheim Foundation is supporting a project that I believe will become the resource for those seeking to understand Baldwin against the sociopolitical backdrop of his time.”
