2002 Hacke Award Reports

I am writing to report my progress on the scholarly endeavors I accomplished during the tenure of my CEA 2000 Robert Hacke Scholar-Teacher Award.

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude for the CEA’s support of my research and scholarship, particularly during this past year. As you may know, my teaching responsibilities and college-wide duties at Nazareth make it difficult for me to pursue the scholarly projects I’d like to accomplish. Therefore, I depend on the summer months for my research and writing, and the funding provided by the Hacke Award, together with a matching grant from my own institution, allowed me the luxury of devoting myself exclusively to my scholarly agenda without having to teach a summer class. Most of the work funded by the Hacke Award, then, was completed between the months of May and August, 2000.

I am pleased to report that during that time, I was extremely productive, accomplishing several projects. In May, I completed a literary biography on the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Cuban-American novelist Oscar Hijuelos, which was commissioned for Scribner's American Writers, a series edited by Professor Jay Parini of Middlebury College.

Following that project, I conducted additional research on Cuban-American novelist Cristina Garcia, querying several publishers to gauge their interest in my study on the writer. Although I received positive responses from a couple of publishing houses, I learned that most university presses are not interested in publishing a manuscript exclusively on Garcia, since she has only published two novels to date (despite their success and acclaim). While I was certainly disheartened by this information, I pressed forward with a second book-length project I was still developing.

Building on some earlier research I had conducted on Oscar Hijuelos, I decided to commit myself to this topic, preparing a formal proposal for a book-length manuscript on Hijuelos. I finished the proposal in July 2000 and submitted it to the University of South Carolina Press for review. To my delight, the press accepted it, offering me a contract for the publication of the book.

Since then, I have continued to make progress on my new book, Understanding Oscar Hijuelos, which will be published by the University of South Carolina Press in 2003 as part of its “Understanding Contemporary American Literature” series, which has been published by the noted Americanist Professor Matthew J. Bruccoli.

At the same time, in August 2000, Professor Parini, impressed by my piece on Oscar Hijuelos, invited me to write a second literary biography—this time on Cristina Garcia—for the next volume of Scribner’s American Writers series. In bits and pieces, I managed to work on that article during the last academic year, and in June 2001, I completed the article.

More recently, Nazareth—based on my scholarly record and the promise of my book project—aided me further with my scholarship by granting me a graduate assistant as I worked to finish the manuscript for delivery in September of 2002.

Please know that I will not remain a stranger to the CEA, an organization that has welcomed me warmly and supported my scholarly pursuits enthusiastically since my first experience with the group at the Baltimore convention several years ago.

Again, thank you for the generous support. I am honored to have been awarded the 2000 Robert Hacke prize.

Joseph M. Viera
Nazareth College