Reading List: 3 More Staff Recommendations for Winter Reading

Lawrence Public Library’s Christmas (book) tree. Last Wednesday, the HBW Blog Editor Meredith Wiggins shared her list of five recent black-authored books to check out over the winter break. Today, HBW Communications Director and Office Manager Crystal Bradshaw shares three additional recommendations to spend some time with while the temperatures drop. Below the cut, check out Crystal’s choices, including two historical novels and a poem. […]

Reading List: 5 Books for the Winter Break

This will always be the dream. [by Meredith Wiggins] The Fall 2014 semester is drawing to a close and winter break is rapidly coming upon us, which means it’s almost the time of year when we here at HBW get to to indulge in more pleasure-reading than is always possible in the thick of the school year. Back in 2012, Goyland Williams posted about some […]

Continuing Ferguson’s Literary History

[by Meredith Wiggins] After the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, staff and contributors of Avidly put together a list of texts that they called “Ferguson’s Literary History” – books, essays, and poems that offer context for the continuing climate of racism and racial violence in the United States. The list received renewed […]

A Good Influence: Writers on the Authors and Texts that Influenced Them

[by Meredith Wiggins] The pleasures of Shay Youngblood’s Black Girl in Paris (2000) are many and vast, but one of the most prominent is the chance to follow along as main character Eden, a would-be writer, attempts to grapple with the literary legacy of James Baldwin, whose writing inspired her to move to Paris.  The novel is rich with references to Baldwin and his body […]

Sexual Assault in 3 Important Works by African American Women

[by Meredith Wiggins] The historical realities of slavery in the United States created social conditions in which whites viewed Black bodies–particularly Black women’s bodies–as sexually available.  As a result, African Americans have been subjected to sexual violence, both threatened and realized, at increased rates throughout U.S. history. African American writers have dealt with this reality in a number of ways.  In order to combat the […]

A Comprehensive Bibliography on the works of Maya Angelou

[Compiled by Shayn Guillemette] Below, browse a comprehensive bibliography of works by poet Maya Angelou. Autobiographies I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1969. Print. Gather Together in My Name. New York: Random House, 1974. Print. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas. New York: Random House, 1976. Print. The Heart of a Woman. New York: Random House, 1981. Print. […]

Dr. Jerry Ward and the Project on The History of Black Writing

[Compiled by Goyland Williams] This is long overdue. Since 2011, when the HBW literary blog was founded, Board Member- Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr. has been its strongest supporter. By supporter I mean, both in spirit and in words (literally).  Nearly 60 post (and counting), he continues to offer the finest critiques and insights that one man can muster up. His works range from philosophical […]