The Cambridge Companion to Contemporary African American Literature - REVIEW

Edited by Yogita Goyal

African American literature has changed in startling ways since the end of the Black Arts Era. The last five decades have generated new paradigms of racial formation and novel patterns of cultural production, circulation, and reception. This volume takes up the challenge of mapping the varied and changing field of contemporary African American writing. Balancing the demands of historical and political context with attention to aesthetic innovation, it considers the history, practice, and future directions of the field. Examining various historical forces shaping the creation of innovative genres, the turn to the afterlife of slavery, the pull toward protest, and the impact of new and expanded geographies and methods, this Companion provides an invaluable point of reference for readers seeking rigorous and cutting-edge analyses of contemporary African American literature.

Yogita Goyal is Professor of African American Studies and English at UCLA and author of Romance, Diaspora, and Black Atlantic Literature (2010) and Runaway Genres: The Global Afterlives of Slavery (2019; winner of ACLA's René Wellek Prize). She edited The Cambridge Companion to Transnational American Literature (2017) and has published widely on African diaspora, postcolonial, and US literature.

Cambridge University Press
ISBN-13 978-1009159715

Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction edited by Valerie Kinloch - REVIEW

This volume brings together respected scholars to examine the intersections of race, justice, and activism in direct relation to the teaching and learning of critical literacy. The authors focus on literacy praxis that reflect how stu­dents-with the loving, critical support of teachers and teacher educators­ engage in resistance work and collaborate for social change. Each chapter theorizes how students and adults initiate and/or participate in important justice work, how their engagements are situated within a critical literacy lens, and what their engagements look like in schools and communities. The authors also explore the importance of this work in the context of current sociopolitical developments, including police shootings, deportations, and persistent educational inequities. 

Contributors include Maneka D. Brooks, Tamara Butler, Gerald Campano, Limarys Caraballo, Jamila Lyiscott, Danny C. Martinez, Leigh Patel, Grace Player, Detra Price-Dennis, Elaine Richardson, Donja Thomas, Vaughn W. M. Watson. 

Valerie Kinloch is the Renee and Richard Goldman Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. Her books include Crossing Boundaries­ Teaching and Learning with Urban Youth; Urban Literacies: Critical Perspectives on Language, Learning, and Community; and Harlem on Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth. 

Tanja Burkhard is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. Carlotta Penn is director of community partnerships at The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology. 

"This volume poweifully and convincingly centers arguments on the significance of antiracist teacher preparation, culturally responsive pedagogy, the power of engag­ing youth in their own learning, and the necessity of community activism." 
-From the Foreword by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University 

"Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction provides needed sustenance for literacy educators committed to joining communities toward racial justice." 
-Django Paris, James A. & Cherry A. Banks Professor of Multicultural Education, University of Washington 

Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction
edited by Valerie Kinlock, Tanja Burkhard, and Carlotta Penn
Teachers College Press
ISBN: 978-0-8077-6321-6