John Edgar Tidwell is professor of English at the University of Kansas.  Among his several courses, he teaches survey classes in American and African American literatures; major author courses in Gordon Parks, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston; and an introduction to the study of fiction.  Coinciding with his teaching, his areas of research are American and African American literatures.  He has published six books and a considerable number of essays, book reviews, literary dictionary entries, interviews, and a bibliography.  For the Kansas Humanities Council Speakers’ Bureau, he has presented “Against the Odds: Writers Growing up Black in Kansas” and “Gordon Parks’s Learning Tree Experience.”  Recently, he joined the KHC Talk About Literature in Kansas (TALK) program, conducting discussions thus far in the African American Experience series.  In 2001-2002, he served as Project Director for “Reading and Remembering Langston Hughes,” funded, in part, by the Kansas Humanities Council.  Prior to that, he was a Resident Scholar for KHC’s "Crossing Boundaries/Making Connections: African American and American Culture" program, in Spring 1996.  He was born and reared in Independence, Kansas.

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Books Edited:

• Oh, Didn't He Ramble: A Life of Sterling A. Brown (under contract by the University of Illinois Press)
  
• After Winter: The Art and Life of Sterling A. Brown ( Oxford University Press, 2009)
  
• A Negro Looks at the South by Sterling A. Brown (Oxford University Press, 2007)
  
• Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes (University of Missouri Press, 2007)
  Writings of Frank Marshall Davis, A Voice of the Black Press (University Press of Mississippi, 2006)
  
• Black Moods: Collected Poems by Frank Marshall Davis (University of Illinois Press, 2002)
  
• Livin' the Blues: Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet by Frank Marshall Davis (University of Wisconsin Press, 1992)

In my mind, the appearance at this time of Black Moods: Collected Poems is fortuitous. Since we have barely crossed over into the twenty-first century, bringing with us the baggage of debates about the (de)merits of racial and cultural diversity and the continuing contentiousnes about the politics of art, Davis's voice has renewed importance. This collection's emergence coincides with the development of new critical and theoretical approaches capable of offering fresh interpretations of Davis's work.

---Introduction From Black Moods

In Davis's abscence, I have made every effort to determine and follow his intentions for a final draft, using the retyped version of the manuscript as authority for Davis's wishes. The guiding editorial principle I've followed in this text is to step out of the way and allow the voice of Davis to speak unimpeded.

---Introduction From Livin' The Blues

• Humanities Research Fellowship, Hall Center for the Humanities, University of Kansas, Spring 2006
• Sabbatical, University of Kansas, Fall 2005
• University of Kansas, General Research Funds, summers 2000, 2001, and 2002
• Scholar-in-Residence, Johnson County Community College, Kansas City, KS, February 17–19, 1999
• Faculty Improvement Leave, Miami University, Fall 1997.
• Alumni Fellows Program, Washburn University, October 22-24, 1994.
• Alumni of Notable Achievement, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, selected June 1994.
• Langston Hughes Visiting Professor of English and of African and African American Studies, University of Kansas, Spring Semester 1994.
• Visiting Scholar in English and in Ethnic Minority Studies, Kansas State University, 15-19 March 1993.
• NEH Summer Stipend, awarded March 1993.
• Miami University, Grant for Research Graduate Assistant, for 1993-1994.
• NEH Travel to Collections Grant, awarded December 1992.
• Miami University, Assigned Research Appointment, Fall 1990.
• Miami University, Summer Research Appointment, 1988.
• NEH Fellowship for Independent Study and Research, 1985-1986.
• NEH Summer Stipend, 1985 (refused).
• NEH Travel to Collections Fellowship, awarded December 1983.
• American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, Fall 1982.
• University of Kentucky Summer Faculty Research Fellowship, 1981, 1982, and 1983.
• National Fellowships Fund Award, 1978-1981 (for dissertation work).
• Jessamine Allen Dissertation Fund Award, University of Minnesota, Fall 1980.
• Putnam Dana McMillan Fellowship, University of Minnesota, Summer 1979.
• American Lutheran Church Future Faculty Fellowship, 1975-1977

• http://www.people.ku.edu/~tidwelje/