African American Literature Archives

September 25, 2018 6 min read

"Those of us who are black and queer still live behind two veils sometimes, and we encounter a lot of the problems W.E.B. DuBois discussed over a century ago [...]" Read More

The Gay Trailblazer of the Harlem Renaissance: Biographer Jeffrey C. Stewart on Alain LeRoy Locke

Nahshon Dion

Interviews

July 17, 2018 13 min read

"Locke sought a roomier notion of Black identity that could allow the queer and the unfixed notions of sexual identity to lurk if not flourish." Read More

Read an Excerpt From Joe Okonkwo’s New Novel ‘Jazz Moon’

William Johnson

News

June 26, 2016 9 min read

Jazz Moon is an evocative novel that maps one character's journey of self-discovery during the height of the Jazz Age Read More

Author Craig Gidney on Illuminating Race and Diversity in Speculative Fiction

Tom Cardamone

Interviews

February 9, 2015 7 min read

"'Death and Two Maidens' was my response to my research on African-descended Victorians. I wanted to write a penny dreadful story that went beyond the usual (pale-skinned) cast." Read More

‘Jam on the Vine’ by LaShonda Katrice Barnett

Mel Morrow

Fiction Reviews

February 8, 2015 3 min read

Jam on the Vine will resonate with many kinds of readers in myriad ways. Not only is it a well-researched and historically accurate account of southern African American survival, northern migration, and identity formation, it is an arresting real-world allegory. Read More

Remembering Assotto Saint: A Fierce and Fatal Vision

Victoria Brownworth

Features

June 19, 2014 18 min read

"[Saint] knew he had to chronicle the black gay voices of AIDS or they would be lost. He had to collect the bits and pieces that would create a different kind of names quilt–the angry verses, the embittered stanzas, the breathy last couplets of the dying." Read More