Category Archives: American literature

September 11, 2019

So You Want to Read Joanna Russ: Reading Guide by Gwyneth Jones

Posted by Tiffany Tzeng
in American literature, author commentary, authors, science fiction | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on So You Want to Read Joanna Russ: Reading Guide by Gwyneth Jones

Experimental, strange, and unabashedly feminist, Joanna Russ’s groundbreaking science fiction grew out of a belief that the genre was ideal for expressing radical thought. Her essays and criticism, meanwhile, helped shape the field and still exercise a powerful influence in … Continue reading →

May 22, 2019

Linda A. Morris on “What is Personal about Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc?”

Posted by Tiffany Tzeng
in American literature, author commentary, journals, literary studies | Comments Off on Linda A. Morris on “What is Personal about Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc?”

Linda A. Morris is a Professor of Emeritus at UC Davis. Her current research is on gender play in the works of Mark Twain. Her earlier published work focused primarily on women’s humor in nineteenth-century America. Her teaching and research … Continue reading →

May 20, 2019

Rediscovering the Black Arts Movement, Jonathan Fenderson on Hoyt Fuller

Posted by Heather Gernenz
in African American Studies, american history, American literature, authors, black studies, culture, new books, Q&A | Tagged , | Comments Off on Rediscovering the Black Arts Movement, Jonathan Fenderson on Hoyt Fuller

Jonathan Fenderson is an assistant professor of African and African American studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He recently answered some questions about his new book Building the Black Arts Movement: Hoyt Fuller and the Cultural Politics of the 1960s.  … Continue reading →

April 9, 2018

Q&A with Joseph Vogel, author of “James Baldwin and the 1980s”

Posted by michael
in African American Studies, american history, American literature, author commentary, authors, new books, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Q&A with Joseph Vogel, author of “James Baldwin and the 1980s”

Joseph Vogel is an assistant professor of English at Merrimack College. He is the author of Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson. He recently answered some questions about his new book, James Baldwin and the 1980s: … Continue reading →

November 17, 2017

6 Books on the Black Chicago Renaissance

Posted by michael
in African American Studies, american history, American literature, black studies, Uncategorized | Comments Off on 6 Books on the Black Chicago Renaissance

The Chicago Black Renaissance was a time of growth and innovation for Chicago’s Black artistic community. During the early to mid 20th century, Chicago was the place where poets and musicians like Gwendolyn Brooks and Nat King Cole flourished. Here are … Continue reading →

April 13, 2017

Backlist Bop: Take a Ride on the Reading

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, American literature, literary studies | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Backlist Bop: Take a Ride on the Reading

As main man LeVar Burton can attest, you can go twice as high if you take a look, it’s in a book. Reading, though an essential skill to anyone outside politics, is also a topic of intense literary interest. Scholars across … Continue reading →

February 24, 2017

200 Years of Illinois: Death of a science fiction master

Posted by rkcunningham
in American literature, science fiction | Tagged , , | Comments Off on 200 Years of Illinois: Death of a science fiction master

On February 25, 2009, science fiction master Philip José Farmer—author of the Riverworld series and the Hugo-winning To Your Scattered Bodies Go—departed our reality at age 91. When it happened I wondered, How did Philip José Farmer end up in Peoria? But it turned out he … Continue reading →

November 10, 2016

Octavia Butler and a new direction

Posted by rkcunningham
in African American Studies, American literature, science fiction | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Octavia Butler and a new direction

Octavia Butler accomplished many near-impossibles. She succeeded as a woman in science fiction. She succeeded as an African American woman in science fiction. She also broke out of the genre’s restraints to earn attention in the American literary sphere. It … Continue reading →

November 10, 2016

“I don’t write utopian science fiction”

Posted by rkcunningham
in American literature, biography, science fiction | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on “I don’t write utopian science fiction”

Excerpts from Octavia E. Butler, the new Modern Masters of Science Fiction book by Gerry Canavan: “If we humans are, as Lauren believes, and as I believe, a part of Earth in significant ways, then perhaps we can’t, or shouldn’t, leave … Continue reading →

September 30, 2016

Banning books

Posted by rkcunningham
in American literature, publishing | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Banning books

Last year Slate ran an article that, in that annoying Slate way, made it clear: the battle is won. We no longer have to fear book banning. It is a rare phenomenon, in America, at least, and true bannings—as opposed to, say, a … Continue reading →