• Writing Black Panther: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Representation Struggles by Howard Rambsy II
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Books in Brief
Books in Brief is an ongoing series featuring concise conversations with scholars about their books in African American literary studies. Each installment begins with a brief description of the book and then invites the author to reflect on the project's inspiration, writing process, and place within the field.
Books in Brief: Writing Black Panther: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Representation Struggles by Howard Rambsy II
About the Book
Publication: 2026
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
This post is part of the Books in Brief series, which features concise conversations with scholars about their books in African American literary studies.
1. What inspired you to pursue the lines of research and writing that resulted in this book?
On the one hand, I’ve been interested in Coates’s work for quite some time, and on the other hand, I have an interest in comic books. I realized that by merging those interests, I could usefully contribute to African American literary studies.
2. What surprised you most during your research or writing process?
I hadn't fully considered that writing comic books unlocked dimensions of Coates's creativity in a wide range of ways. He's understandably famous for his nonfiction, but I was surprised, and ultimately motivated to write this book, by how essential comics became to showcasing his imagination and storytelling abilities.
I hadn't fully considered that writing comic books unlocked dimensions of Coates's creativity in a wide range of ways. He's understandably famous for his nonfiction, but I was surprised, and ultimately motivated to write this book, by how essential comics became to showcasing his imagination and storytelling abilities.
3. What part of this project took the longest to figure out?
The hardest decision was figuring out the book's overall organization. I went through roughly 70 versions of the table of contents, experimenting with different structures before arriving at a ten-chapter, loosely chronological approach.
The hardest decision was figuring out the book's overall organization. I went through roughly 70 versions of the table of contents, experimenting with different structures before arriving at a ten-chapter, loosely chronological approach.
4. What's one lesson you learned while producing this book that you'll carry into future projects?
I made a conscious effort to present my findings earlier and more incrementally than is typical in literary scholarship. Too often, we postpone central insights until well into a chapter or even near the end of a book, seemingly unaware that many audiences prefer early insights and a clear sense of where the discussion is headed.
I made a conscious effort to present my findings earlier and more incrementally than is typical in literary scholarship. Too often, we postpone central insights until well into a chapter or even near the end of a book, seemingly unaware that many audiences prefer early insights and a clear sense of where the discussion is headed.
5. If any come to mind, are there books in African American literary studies that you see your work in conversation with?
Although I don't cite them in the book, I continually found myself thinking about Courtney Thorsson's The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture (2023) and Elizabeth McHenry's To Make Negro Literature: Writing, Literary Practice, and African American Authorship (2021). Thorsson's project, which is inspired in part by a single photograph, modeled for me how one compelling object can anchor a larger scholarly argument, while McHenry continues to show how careful attention to archival and seemingly subtle sources can produce transformative literary history. I also kept returning to Farah Jasmine Griffin's Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature (2021), especially during the many hours I spent reading and rereading Black Panther comics.
Although I don't cite them in the book, I continually found myself thinking about Courtney Thorsson's The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture (2023) and Elizabeth McHenry's To Make Negro Literature: Writing, Literary Practice, and African American Authorship (2021). Thorsson's project, which is inspired in part by a single photograph, modeled for me how one compelling object can anchor a larger scholarly argument, while McHenry continues to show how careful attention to archival and seemingly subtle sources can produce transformative literary history. I also kept returning to Farah Jasmine Griffin's Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature (2021), especially during the many hours I spent reading and rereading Black Panther comics.
Wednesday, July 1, 2026
Blogging about Poetry in June 2026
Friday, June 12, 2026
The Consistency of Walter Mosley
By Elizabeth Cali
Walter Mosley is consistent. Search the Navigator Device for 21st-century novels, and it is impossible to overlook how frequently Mosley’s name comes up. I wondered, just in 21st century novel publications, how consistently Mosley published across the first two decades of this century. Did he have a strong entry into the new century and perhaps did his productivity wane some in the 2010s, or vice versa?
Thirty of Walter Mosley’s 21st-century novels were published in the 2000s and 2010s. It is striking that his novelistic output in the 2000s is equal to his novelistic output in the 2010s. 15 novels published in each of the first two decades of the 21st century.
Mosley stands out in part due to the significant number of novels he has published, but the consistency, the even-ness with which he has published in the first two decades of this century prompts further consideration. We might consider how many of those novels are part of the Easy Rawlins series or the Leonid McGill series, for which Mosley is known. Does authoring a series lend itself to greater productivity, for example? What about the novels that are not part of a series? Do these lead to significant departures in topics, themes, genre, or plot?
Such significant and consistent output allows readers to ask more pointed questions about the layers of both consistency and variation in theme, genre, protagonists, settings, and structure that take place within and across such a steady, remarkable output of imaginative writing. And, notably, the rarity in having such a volume of regular creative production from one author is that that when readers ask questions about Mosely’s storytelling and fiction writing patterns, trends, variations, and creative flights, they’ll have significant data to back up their answers.
Thirty of Walter Mosley’s 21st-century novels were published in the 2000s and 2010s. It is striking that his novelistic output in the 2000s is equal to his novelistic output in the 2010s. 15 novels published in each of the first two decades of the 21st century.
Mosley stands out in part due to the significant number of novels he has published, but the consistency, the even-ness with which he has published in the first two decades of this century prompts further consideration. We might consider how many of those novels are part of the Easy Rawlins series or the Leonid McGill series, for which Mosley is known. Does authoring a series lend itself to greater productivity, for example? What about the novels that are not part of a series? Do these lead to significant departures in topics, themes, genre, or plot?
Such significant and consistent output allows readers to ask more pointed questions about the layers of both consistency and variation in theme, genre, protagonists, settings, and structure that take place within and across such a steady, remarkable output of imaginative writing. And, notably, the rarity in having such a volume of regular creative production from one author is that that when readers ask questions about Mosely’s storytelling and fiction writing patterns, trends, variations, and creative flights, they’ll have significant data to back up their answers.
Related:
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Mapping the Remarkable Literary Career of Elizabeth Alexander
Representing her productivity this way highlights the number of works she has produced and points to the breadth and continuity of her contributions across more than three decades. Rather than presenting a bibliography as a simple list, a visual map like this helps us see patterns of literary production.
Related:
Monday, June 1, 2026
Blogging about Poetry in May 2026
[Related content: Blogging about Poetry]
• May 1: Blogging about Poetry in April 2026
Thursday, May 21, 2026
What ProQuest Reveals About Black Poetry Scholarship
From 2000–2025, we can notice significant disparities in scholarly attention among Black poets.
That’s what I noticed when I used ProQuest to tally MA theses and dissertations on several notable Black poets. Here are the numbers of appearances the poets made in those documents:
Langston Hughes — 3,009
Amiri Baraka — 1,335
Claude McKay — 920
Gwendolyn Brooks — 766
Paul Laurence Dunbar — 664
June Jordan — 468
Nikki Giovanni — 459
Sonia Sanchez — 380
Rita Dove — 298 Lucille Clifton — 291
Robert Hayden — 224
As you can see, Langston Hughes, and then Baraka and McKay, exist in categories well above everyone else.
To the extent that Dove, Clifton, and Hayden are among our most widely known and frequently cited Black poets, the numbers also give a sense that dozens of other African American poets likely register much lower on the citation scale. Those of us who study poetry are not especially surprised, because we have long known that many poets receive comparatively limited scholarly engagement.
Still, I appreciate that ProQuest makes it possible to get a quantitative sense of things, including the striking variances among well-known Black poets.
Charting the appearances of Black writers in ProQuest gives me sturdier ground for considering where scholarship is, and is not, moving in the future. If these are the poets that advanced graduate students are focusing on, the numbers serve as a slight preview of the field’s ongoing directions.
Related:
Friday, May 15, 2026
The Variety of 21st-Century Black Middle Grade Fiction
By Jeremiah Carter
Middle grade novels are an interesting subset of 21st-century Black fiction, representing a substantial and varied body within the dataset.
Type “middle grade” in the search bar for the Navigator, then select “Novel” for Reading Form and “21st century” for Period of Publication. The results are notably varied, including urban narratives, sports stories, science fiction, Black girlhood and boyhood narratives, friend-group adventures, magical realism, LGBTQ+ themes, nature-centered stories, and more. The results indicate that middle grade Black fiction encompasses a wide range of genres, themes, and reading experiences rather than functioning as a narrow literary category.
This pattern suggests that middle grade fiction serves as an important and diverse entry point into contemporary Black literary culture for younger readers. It also indicates that Black middle grade fiction provides space for exploring identity, friendship, imagination, family, and social life across multiple narrative forms and genres.
Type “middle grade” in the search bar for the Navigator, then select “Novel” for Reading Form and “21st century” for Period of Publication. The results are notably varied, including urban narratives, sports stories, science fiction, Black girlhood and boyhood narratives, friend-group adventures, magical realism, LGBTQ+ themes, nature-centered stories, and more. The results indicate that middle grade Black fiction encompasses a wide range of genres, themes, and reading experiences rather than functioning as a narrow literary category.
This pattern suggests that middle grade fiction serves as an important and diverse entry point into contemporary Black literary culture for younger readers. It also indicates that Black middle grade fiction provides space for exploring identity, friendship, imagination, family, and social life across multiple narrative forms and genres.
Related:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)