In Memoriam: Yvonne Brown

[ By: Victoria Garcia Unzueta ] Yvonne Brown (April 18, 1977 – November 26, 2021) The Project on the History of Black Writing mourns the passing of author and educator Yvonne Brown who passed away recently due to COVID-19. Yvonne Brown was the author of the acclaimed novel, Crying Girl (2019) and the founder of the Crying Girl Movement, which started as a marketing campaign […]

New Hurston Studies and Beyond

[ By: Christopher Peace and Jade Harrison ] The following is the third installment of a three-part series recapping the events of the Project on the History of Black Writing’s 2021 NEH Summer Institute, Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future. Dr. Kevin Quashie, author of Black Aliveness, or A Poetics of Being (2021), spoke about Zora Neale Hurston’s ever-evolving work as a literary […]

The “Other Hurston”- Broadening Communal and Digital Spaces

[ By: Christopher Peace and Jade Harrison ] Part two of our three-part series recapping the events of The Project on the History of Black Writing’s NEH Summer Institute “Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future”. Week 2 of HBW’s NEH Summer Institute Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future focused on different approaches to Hurston’s career by attending to her neglected texts, […]

Hurston’s Canon: Into the Mysteries of Zora Neale Hurston

[By: Christopher Peace] The following is the first installment of a three-part series recapping the events of The Project on the History of Black Writing’s NEH Summer Institute “Hurston on the Horizon: Past, Present, and Future”. Zora Neale Hurston’s literary and anthropological influence remains constantly relevant in today’s scholarship, and it continues to invite multiple audiences into the depths of her mysteries. The Project on […]

The Black Book Interactive Project

[ By: Jade Harrison ] The Black Book Interactive Project (BBIP) is the digital component of the Project on the History of Black Writing (HBW). A collaborative research model, it increases the number of Black-authored texts available for scholarly engagement and teaching.  Founded in 2010, based on a pilot project created by then graduate student Kenton Rambsy, now a professor at the University of Texas-Arlington, […]

An interview with DeAsia Paige, author of The College Diaries Pt. 2

[ By: Shawna Shipley-Gates ] In Part II DeAsia Paige and Shawna Shipley-Gates hold a conversation on the impact Black feminism has had on each of their lives and its continued use their everyday experiences. Paige also discusses her current work and plans for the future. *This conversation has been edited for length and clarity* Shipley-Gates: I’m glad you brought up feminism because I found […]