Emily Bernard

Emily Bernard is the author of Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine, winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, and Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White. She is a contributing editor of the Scholar.

My Name Is Emily

What we call ourselves—and what
others call us—can be both a burden and a gift

By Emily Bernard | Thursday March 28, 2024

It All Begins in Love

An essayist sees glimpses of her parents and the many struggles they endured in a new exhibition of southern photography

By Emily Bernard | Friday January 5, 2024

Life in Black and White

By Emily Bernard | Monday August 2, 2021

Interstates

How My Italian-American husband ate his way into the good graces of my African-American family

By Emily Bernard | Monday March 6, 2017

The Value of Clarity

By Emily Bernard | Monday August 15, 2016

Useful

By Emily Bernard | Monday March 10, 2014

Scar Tissue

When I was stabbed 17 years ago in a New Haven coffee shop, the wounds did not only come from the knife

By Emily Bernard | Thursday August 25, 2011

Deep Trouble

How a natural disaster barreled into a historical one

By Emily Bernard | Friday June 3, 2011

Fired

Can a friendship really end for no good reason?

By Emily Bernard | Friday December 1, 2006

Teaching the N-Word

A black professor, an all-white class, and the thing nobody will say

By Emily Bernard | Thursday September 1, 2005

My Name Is Emily

By Emily Bernard | Thursday March 28, 2024

It All Begins in Love

By Emily Bernard | Friday January 5, 2024

Life in Black and White

By Emily Bernard | Monday August 2, 2021

Interstates

By Emily Bernard | Monday March 6, 2017

The Value of Clarity

By Emily Bernard | Monday August 15, 2016

Useful

By Emily Bernard | Monday March 10, 2014

Scar Tissue

By Emily Bernard | Thursday August 25, 2011

Deep Trouble

By Emily Bernard | Friday June 3, 2011

Fired

By Emily Bernard | Friday December 1, 2006

Teaching the N-Word

By Emily Bernard | Thursday September 1, 2005

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