Literary Criticism

A magnificent cultural biography that charts the life of one of our greatest writers, situating her alongside the key historical and social moments that shaped her work. As the first Black woman to consistently write and publish in the field of science...

"An engaging, introspective view of poet Langston Hughes and curates a compelling narrative of Hughes as an activist, advocate, and champion of justice through his poetry." --Library Journal "By resisting a sanitized version of Hughes, My America...

When did you feel the pull of poetry? For Ashley M. Jones, the moment she knew she would be a poet was at seven years old--reciting "Harriet Tubman" by Eloise Greenfield. That moment, that poem, showed her there was a place for her in the world of...

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring This Very Short Introduction brings together a wide range of narratives of slavery across a broad historical period to understand how Black people--enslaved and not-enslaved--have experienced and...

Baltimore's Black Arts Then & Now brings to life the Chicory Revitalization Project, a public humanities initiative that revives Baltimore's historic Chicory magazine. From 1966 to 1983, Chicory served as a powerful voice for working-class Black...

A probing essay collection that chronicles one woman's complicated quest to find home in a fractured America, from the award-winning author of Field Study "In Chet'la Sebree's sensitive and tender hands, this book's quest (and question) of home is...

A timely look at contemporary African American creative works through the lens of Ta-Nehisi Coates's ground-breaking entry into the comic book industry. Writing Black Panther traces Ta-Nehisi Coates's presence in comic books from 2015-2023, focusing on...

Explore the Stories Behind the Legends First introduced in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, Miles Morales reconceived Spider-Man as African American and Latinx, and his debut marked a new direction in the saga of a beloved character. Miles...

The first book-length study of Dorothy West, now with new writings and insights Originally published in 2005, WheretheWildGrapeGrows: SelectedWritings, 1930-1950 was the first book-length study of Dorothy West's work, providing a rich and insightful...

Across a range of literary texts, Black writers depict taking flight to escape systems of subordination from the Middle Passage and the plantation to the present-day racialized order. While flight, air, and aviation technologies have long held out the...

Across a range of literary texts, Black writers depict taking flight to escape systems of subordination from the Middle Passage and the plantation to the present-day racialized order. While flight, air, and aviation technologies have long held out the...

This book combines in one volume two now classic short story collections. The editor has added a new introduction and prefatory material. "Mary Helen Washington has had a greater impact upon the formation of the canon of Afro-American literature than has...