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Creator
Wood, Joe, 1964-
Call number
Sc MG 1020
Physical description
1.87 linear feet (5 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Joe Wood papers, Sc MG 1020, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Joe Wood (1964- ) was a New York City-based writer and editor. Before his disappearance while hiking in Mount Rainier National Park on July 8, 1999, he had been conducting genealogical research for a book titled Blood in the Water: A Black Family in America, which was never published. These materials consist of notebooks, loose notes, and manuscripts. The collection also includes drafts of short fiction manuscripts.

Biographical/historical information

Joe Wood (1964- ) was a New York City-based writer and editor.

Joseph Lee Wood Jr. was born September 17, 1964 to parents Joe Wood Sr. and Elizabeth Moore Wood. He grew up in the Bronx, NY. He attended Riverdale Country School and graduated in 1986 from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in English. He went on to become a writer. Wood edited the book Malcolm X: In Our Own Image and wrote essays and reviews in other books and journals. As a journalist, he published articles in Esquire, Dissent, The Nation, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Social Text, Vibe, and Voice Literary Supplement. He was a columnist and Senior Features Editor at The Village Voice. Wood was also an editor of nonfiction and fiction books at The New Press at a time when there were few Black editors at major New York publishing houses. He was an associate producer for the James Baldwin PBS documentary The Price of the Ticket. Wood received Fellowships in Non-Fiction Writing at New York Foundation for the Arts and Bronx Council for the Arts.

Wood went missing on July 8, 1999 after going for a hike to birdwatch in Mount Rainier National Park. He was 34 years old. He had been attending Unity '99, a journalism conference in Seattle for writers of color. Somini Sengupta (fellow journalist, former partner, and a close friend) called to report him missing. The National Park Service conducted a search but suspended it after five days. Wood's friends, including Sengupta and fellow Village Voice editor Andy Hsiao, also searched for him. His literary agent, Faith Childs, hired a private investigator to aid in the search. Wood is presumed to have died but the circumstances of his disappearance remain unclear.

Before his disappearance, Wood had been conducting genealogical research for a book titled Blood in the Water: A Black Family in America. The project investigated Wood's genealogy and how his family's conceptions of their family history delineated familial memory. In particular, he was examining his family's roots in South Carolina and his ancestors' relationship to their former enslavers. In his writing he also interrogated the myths and conceptions around the Black family in America.

Scope and arrangement

The Joe Wood papers, spanning the years 1993-1998, comprise Wood's research and writing materials, primarily for his planned book Blood in the Water: A Black Family in America. The collection also includes drafts of short fiction manuscripts.

The Blood in the Water research materials and manuscript drafts files consist of notebooks, loose notes, and manuscripts. Wood's application to be a Schomburg Center Scholar-in-Residence is also included. There are two sets of notebooks, one containing transcripts of interviews that Wood conducted with family members, the other containing Wood's extensive genealogical research notes. The research notebooks contain snippets of writing that Wood may have been planning to use towards the book. There is also a standalone notebook containing notes and graded tests from a hereditary biology course that Wood took in 1996. There are occasional loose papers at the beginning or end of the notebooks and sticky notes on some pages. Split adjacent files have been used for notebooks that have loose papers at the beginning or end. When sticky notes are at risk of falling off of the pages, archival quality photocopies have been made of the pages and interleaved in the notebooks. Wood also organized loose notes into folders, which largely cover his maternal family genealogical research. These folders also contain related flyers, pamphlets, and funeral programs. Additionally, there are a number of partial manuscript drafts for Blood in the Water.

The short fiction manuscript draft files include full and fragmented manuscript drafts of short stories. Some have handwritten revisions. Titles include "Rules of Thumb When Eating at Thai Restaurants," "Show and Tell," "Butterball," "Little Guy," "Goodbye, Ricky," and "The Carolina Grill."

Arrangement

The transcript and research notebooks are arranged in their number order. Folders of loose notes and partial manuscript drafts of Blood in the Water are arranged chronologically. Short fiction manuscript drafts are arranged in received order.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Somini Sengupta in 2021.

Processing information

Processed by Sarah Barlow-Ochshorn in 2025.

Separated material

See the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division for the audio cassette tapes.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor