Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States that is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery. The holiday’s name, first used in the 1890s, is a portmanteau of the words “June” […]
2025 Juneteenth
Tag: African American literature
AAIHS 2025 Virtual Exhibit
Welcome to the University of Illinois Press virtual exhibit for the 2025 African American Intellectual History Society conference! Visit our website and use promo code AAIHS25 for 50% off of all African American studies […]
2025 Black History Month
African American Studies is a cornerstone of the University of Illinois Press. While we honor Black history all year, this month we’re celebrating with some of our favorite and forthcoming […]
AAIHS 2024 Virtual Exhibit
Welcome to the University of Illinois Press virtual exhibit for the 2024 African American Intellectual History Society conference! Explore our extensive collection of books, journals, blog posts, and more. Use […]
2024 Black History Month
African American Studies is a cornerstone of the University of Illinois Press. While we honor Black history all year, this month we’re celebrating with some of our favorite and forthcoming […]
AAIHS 2023 Virtual Exhibit
Welcome to the University of Illinois Press virtual exhibit for the 2023 African American Intellectual History Society conference! Explore our extensive collection of books, journals, blog posts, and more. Use […]
2023 Black History Month
African American Studies is a cornerstone of the University of Illinois Press. While we honor Black history all year, this month we’re celebrating with some of our favorite and forthcoming […]
Guest post: “Making America great again with Octavia Butler,” by Gerry Canavan
Today’s post is by Gerry Canavan, author of the new UIP book Octavia E. Butler. Canavan is an assistant professor of twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature at Marquette University, specializing in science […]
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 […]
Release Party: Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century
From the new UIP release Black Girlhood in the Nineteenth Century, by Nazera Sadiq Wright. African American educator and activist Fannie Barrier Williams highlighted what could happen when black girls in […]
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 […]