A Record Semester (Fall 2025) for African American Literary Studies at SIUE

In fall 2025, our African American literary studies group at SIUE offered more courses than ever before, with 33 classes in a single semester.

To put that in perspective, our previous high was 12 courses in one semester, back in spring 2023.

So what changed?

Most notably, the university enrolled a record number of first-semester Black students, and 514 of those students took our introductory African American literature course. For the first time, we also paired that course with labs, significantly expanding our instructional capacity and support for students. 

Here’s what we offered: 14 sections of the first-semester African American literature course, 14 lab sections, an online African American literature survey, African American Women Writers, a 400-level African American literature course, a diversity and comic books course, and a graduate seminar in African American literature. In total, 12 instructors taught across these offerings.

Fall 2025 marked a new scale of reach for African American literary studies at SIUE.

Related:

• African American Literary Studies at SIUE

How Black Women Are Reading Now

By Joyce Woodard 

Social media has made discovering new content, interests, and communities accessible to just about anyone. This accessibility has been significant for Black communities in creating spaces and representation. Black women students have played an integral part in this community-building by sharing their favorite books and even forming book clubs/groups.

 
Black women have obviously been reading books and forming communities long before social media, it is important to note the role digital platforms play presently. Young black women sharing their thoughts on a book they read with other Black women via social media opens the floor, or the comment section in this case, for discussion while also offering a sense of community.

While watching book recommendations or reviews by Black women students, a common theme emerges; they nearly always mention not enjoying books about Black women’s pain and suffering, instead, they look for books about Black empowerment or love. Prominent Black authors like bell hooks, Kristina Forest, and Kennedy Ryan, to name a few, are among the most mentioned authors in these videos. Many young Black women shared the same sentiment of wanting to read more classic Black literature.

Digital platforms outside of social media that offer audiobooks have played a major role in shaping how young Black women read. Not only are audiobooks more convenient, but they also encourage more frequent reading for young Black women.

Related:

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

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.

 

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Related:

• Episodes of Remarkable Receptions

• A Data Visualization of Amy Sherald's paintings

• A checklist of paintings by Amy Sherald

“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.

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.

Related: 

• Notes on Black Readers & Digital Culture

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.

Entries

• “People Assume I Don’t Read” -- Al Smith

• How Black Women Are Reading Now -- Joyce Woodard 

Related:

• A Notebook on Readers

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.

Related:

• Black Poets and the Academy of American Poets

• A Notebook on prizes, awards & fellowships

Black Novelists 500: A Visual Index

This Black Novelists 500: A Visual Index visualization presents an interactive visual representation of a dataset documenting 500 Black novelists, making visible broad patterns of gender, generational cohorts, birth regions, and primary audience. 

Related: 

• Black Novelists 500

Findings from Black Novelists 500 (January 2026)

Based on findings from Black Novelists 500…

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 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.

Related:

• Black Novelists 500