In the 30s and 40s, Langston Hughes wrote poetic tributes to the working class and socialist leaders worldwide. Some critics allege he abandoned his principles later in life, but they ignore the role of McCarthyist oppression and Hughes’s resistance.
A long forgotten if seminal early Richard Wright novel is brought back to life by Library of America for a new generation of readers.
Nobel awards an African author — what's the history? School boards showdowns, and more
The liveliness and invention of Heinrich Heine’s writing changed 19th century German literature for the better. Poet, writer, literary critic, satirist and ironist, but banned in his homeland and expatriated to Paris, he was well appreciated by Marx
Mainstream culture denied Black children their humanity—so W. E. B. Du Bois created The Brownies’ Book to assert it.
What will writers do when the outrage is over? Will they go back to writing about flowers and moons?
Under the slick suits and high tension shootouts, America’s favorite thrillers are hiding something.
John le Carré died Saturday at eighty-nine. His novels rejected the glamor and ritz of Cold War–era spy fiction. Instead, he portrayed espionage as a dreary, disturbing machine that ground up innocents for a goal that didn’t justify the human cost.
Walter Mosley's incredible speech from last month's National Book Awards, receiving The Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters - the first African American man to receive this award.
This "remarkable collection," says reviewer Rader, "is the most inclusive and the most comprehensive anthology of Native American poetry to date."
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