University of Georgia poet and scholar Ed Pavlić was named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, a prestigious honor for professionals working across the arts, humanities and sciences. Pavlić, a Distinguished Research Professor of English and African American Studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was one of 223 academics, scientists, independent scholars, writers and artists selected for the 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows from a pool of almost 5,000 applicants.
“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 given to individuals based on prior career achievements and future promise, spanning the creative arts, humanities and the natural and social sciences. The fellowships, managed by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, come with funding to pursue “independent work at the highest level under the freest conditions.”
Pavlić has authored 13 books, including volumes of poetry, a novel and critical studies of literature, music and film. He has also published essays in more than 60 magazines, centered on African American and diasporic life and culture. In the past decade, much of his writing has focused on the life and work of another Guggenheim Fellow, James Baldwin, the author and civil rights icon who was one of America’s towering literary and public figures of the 20th century.
Pavlić is under contract with Henry Holt & Company to publish “Darker than Blue: A Radical Life of James Baldwin,” a literary biography drawing on archives from around the United States, private collections as well four decades of letters between Baldwin and his closest brother, David. Pavlić was granted access to the letters, previously unseen by scholars, by Baldwin’s family.
“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 his Guggenheim Fellowship, Pavlić expects to finish his book in time for publication in 2028.
“Ed is a prolific scholar whose work on Baldwin has illuminated the complexity of this great artist,” said Anna Stenport, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “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.”