Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Viewing Amy Sherald
A brief take on how SIUE Promise Prize Scholars Nia Roy and Al Smith respond to Amy Sherald’s portraiture, showing how students articulate the power of her grayscale technique, vibrant color contrasts, and confident subjects to reshape perceptions of Black identity and everyday representation.
“People Assume I Don’t Read”
By Al Smith
A haunting theme that arose when conducting interviews with several African American men was that they felt that they were often overlooked when it came to reading related opportunities. These opportunities were defined as being able to express how they felt about what they read and several men mentioned that others oftentimes assumed that they didn’t read outside of school.
First-year student Jamoni Denzmore pointed out that his laid-back demeanor oftentimes led to many of his peers and instructors thinking that he wasn’t as serious about his reading. This led to him being labeled as a non-participant, and his instructors and peers no longer included him when discussing the nature of the relevant readings.
First-year student Jamoni Denzmore pointed out that his laid-back demeanor oftentimes led to many of his peers and instructors thinking that he wasn’t as serious about his reading. This led to him being labeled as a non-participant, and his instructors and peers no longer included him when discussing the nature of the relevant readings.
In addition to acknowledging that his reading skills were often overlooked, he also mentioned that he mostly enjoyed reading privately and wasn’t forthcoming with class discussions related to assigned readings. Denzmore's testimony could be viewed in several ways, but the most apparent is a disconnect between being a capable reader and being an enjoyer. That is, that while a student such as Denzmore enjoys reading in private, his habits aren’t showcased in environments where verbal expression and comprehension are required (i.e. Socratic seminars and class discussions).
With a specialization in Sports Psychology, Denzmore pointed out that he is regularly drawn to non-fiction texts that can be used to expand his vocabulary. “In college, I’ve narrowed down more words and analyzed passages more than in high school. It goes a lot further than me just reading it to get it over with.”
Denzmore provided valuable insight into reading attitudes and patterns at the collegiate level from the lens of an African American male. That is, that while his relaxed and calm demeanor is a testament to his personality, it has no correlation to his interest and ability to read. Identifying what young African American men like to read and exploring a variety of ways that they can express what they’ve comprehended may prove to be worthwhile in ensuring that they are given options and can benefit from the exposure.
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Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture
This series charts the practices and perspectives of Black readers, including their engagements with literary works, social media, digital platforms, and informal reading spaces. Through observation, interviews, and short reports, we document students’ concerns, interests, interpretive habits, and the ways they navigate reading across print, screens, and social networks.
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Monday, January 26, 2026
Cornelius Eady named to Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors
Today, the Academy of American Poets named Cornelius Eady and Gabrielle Calvocoressi as New Chancellors. The Board of Chancellors "is an elected group of distinguished poets who advise the Academy of American Poets on artistic matters, judge its largest legacy prizes, and serve as ambassadors for poetry."
The current chancellors are: Jericho Brown, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Natalie Diaz, Cornelius Eady, Nikky Finney, Carolyn Forché, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Ilya Kaminsky, Ed Roberson, Diane Seuss, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Natasha Trethewey, and Afaa Michael Weaver.
We've come a long way from 1998, when Fred Viebahn led a public critique of the Academy of American Poets for not having any Black poets on the Board. Black poets have appeared on the board since 1999. During the 2010s, multiple African American poets were selected to serve.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Black Novelists 500: A Visual Index
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Monday, January 19, 2026
Findings from Black Novelists 500 (January 2026)
Birth years and generational cohorts
• The birth years span nearly two centuries, from the early 1810s to 2000, revealing the long historical arc of Black novelistic production.
• The center of gravity falls squarely in the mid- to late-20th century, with a heavy concentration of births between the late 1940s and late 1970s, reflecting the generational boom in post–civil rights era literary careers.
• Novelistic production, as reflected in this dataset, is overwhelmingly modern, with nearly 86% of the 500 novelists born after 1928, suggesting that African American literary production and visibility have greatly expanded in the post–World War II era.
• Generation X is the largest cohort, with 135 novelists, indicating that writers born between 1965 and 1980 form the structural backbone of late-20th- and early-21st-century Black fiction.
• Only 22 novelists in the dataset were born before 1901, highlighting how limited access to publishing, education, and literary markets was for Black writers in the 19th century.
• With just 6 novelists so far, Gen Z’s small presence reflects the lag time between birth, first publication, and cultural visibility, making this dataset a baseline for watching the next generational wave emerge.
Countries of birth
• The dataset reflects a broad but clustered global diaspora, spanning 32 countries across Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America, with most nations represented by a small number of novelists, notwithstanding the United States and Nigeria.
• The dataset reflects a broad but clustered global diaspora, spanning 32 countries across Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America, with most nations represented by a small number of novelists, notwithstanding the United States and Nigeria.
• The dataset is predominantly U.S.-centered, with 298 of the 500 novelists born in the United States, showing how strongly Black fiction, as tracked through visibility and reception, has been shaped by U.S.-based literary institutions and markets.
• Nigeria is the single largest non-U.S. country of origin, with 66 novelists, underscoring the pronounced global influence and productivity of Nigerian-born writers within Black fiction.
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Sunday, January 18, 2026
A Checklist of 500 Black Novelists
A
Chris Abani, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Leila Aboulela, Joseph Wilfred Abruquah, Elizabeth Acevedo, Chinua Achebe, Diran Adebayo, Ayobami Adebayo, Sade Adeniran, Tomi Adeyemi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Segun Afolabi, Ama Ata Aidoo, Rochelle Alers, Kwame Alexander, Kianna Alexander, André Alexis, Zaynab Alkali, Jeffery Renard Allen, T. M. Aluko, Elechi Amadi, Raymond Andrews, Tina McElroy Ansa, Ayi Kwei Armah, Bediako Asare, Jabari Asim, Sefi Atta, Ayesha Harruna Attah, William Attaway, Kofi Awoonor
B
B
Mariama Bâ, Yaba Badoe, James Baldwin, Toni Cade Bambara, Ellen Banda-Aaku, Biyi Bandele, Kelly J. Baptist, Tracey Baptiste, Amiri Baraka, Steven Barnes, A. Igoni Barrett, Rena Barron, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Kaylnn Bayron, Blitz Bazawule, Paul Beatty, Brit Bennett, Mongo Beti, Daniel Black, Lauren Blackwood, Eleanor Taylor Bland, J. J. Bola, Tonya Bolden, Cynthia Bond, Arna Bontemps, Coe Booth, David Bradley, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Dionne Brand, Monica Brashears, Connie Briscoe, Maurice Broaddus, Erna Brodber, Asha Bromfield, Gwendolyn Brooks, William Wells Brown, Cecil Brown, Diane Marie Brown, Echo Brown,
Frank London Brown, India Hill Brown, Roseanne A. Brown, Mahogany L. Browne, Elise Bryant, Kalisha Buckhanon, Noviolet Bulawayo, Gabriel Bump, Octavia Butler
C
C
Maisy Card, Lorene Cary, Kashana Cauley, Colin Channer, David Chariandy, Tami Charles, Paula Chase, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Charles W. Chesnutt, Alice Childress, Shimmer Chinodya, Tracy Clark, Austin Clarke, Pearl Cleage, Zinzi Clemmons, Michelle Cliff, Lesa Cline-Ransome, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Rita Akoto Coker, Brandy Colbert, Teju Cole, Alyssa Cole, Jay Coles, Maryse Condé, J. California Cooper, Kia Corthron, S. A. Cosby, Naima Coster, Leesa Cross-Smith, Countee Cullen, Christopher Paul Curtis
Black Novelists 500
In African American literary studies, scholarly articles commonly focus on two or three authors, while broad survey texts typically identify no more than a hundred novelists. I was curious about what we might learn by extending that scope to consider hundreds of Black novelists at once.
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