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 […]
Category: American literature
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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, […]
Five quotes from Frederik Pohl
Today, UIP author Michael R. Page takes to the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast to discuss the work and legacy of science fiction master Frederik Pohl. In his seven-decade career, […]
Bradbury Trivia: Ray and Rod
Ray Bradbury, born on August 22, 1920, is known for his breakthrough novels such as Fahrenheit 451. As Jonathan R. Eller writes in Ray Bradbury Unbound, the author also made an […]
RIP Michael S. Harper
Michael S. Harper had a claim on the title of poet-historian, for he drew on the vast histories of African Americans as well as the United States to create works […]
Pump it up with Walt Whitman
The well-read are abuzz over Walt Whitman’s recently discovered journalistic work Manly Health and Training. Published in an obscure newspaper in 1858, Whitman’s dive into the medical science and ubiquitous quackery of […]
From the modernist post: Kay Boyle and Hemingway
Kay Boyle published more than forty books during her life including fifteen novels, and eight volumes of poetry. Yet her achievements can be even better appreciated through her letters to […]
Waging War on War author Mariani brings global perspective to American Studies
The Global Studies of the United States series, presents outstanding work by non-U.S.-based scholars who specialize in American studies. One of those authors recently traveled to the United States (in fact […]