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Research + Publications

HBW Research

The History of Black Writing Novel Corpus - Since HBW's founding in 1983, its mission has been to identify texts that have been lost to history and advocate for their return, to increase the awareness of African American authors, and to create opportunities for teaching and learning. Our collection of nearly 7,000 well-known and lesser-known novels is in the process of being digitized.

A portion of the novels currently in the public domain, representing writing from a wide range of genres and authors, is available through our collaboration with the University of Chicago Textual Optics Lab.

Explore the HBW Novel Corpus at our PhiloLogic site hosted by the University of Chicago.

HBW Publications

African American Literature in Transition 1930-1940

Edited by Eve Dunbar and Ayesha K. Hardison

African American Literature in Transition 1930-1940 explores 1930s African American writing to examine Black life, culture, and politics to document the ways Black artists and everyday people managed the Great Depression's economic impact on the creative and the social. Essays engage iconic figures such as Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Dorothy West, and Richard Wright as well as understudied writers such as Arna Bontemps, Marita Bonner, Henry Lee Moon, and Roi Ottley. This book demonstrates the significance of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and Black literary circles in the absence of white patronage. By featuring novels, poetry, short fiction, and drama alongside guidebooks, photographs, and print culture, African American Literature in Transition 1930-1940 provides evidence of the literary culture created by Black writers and readers during a period of economic precarity, expanded activism for social justice, and urgent internationalism.

The Cambridge History of African American Literature

Edited by Maremma Graham and Jerry W. Ward, Jr.

The first major twenty-first century history of four hundred years of Black writing, The Cambridge History of African American Literature presents a comprehensive overview of the oral and print literary traditions of African-descended peoples in the United States. Expert contributors, drawn from the United States and beyond, emphasize the dual nature of each text discussed as a work of art created by an individual and as a response to unfolding events in American cultural, political, and social history. Unprecedented in scope, sophistication and accessibility, the volume draws together current scholarship in the field. It also looks ahead to suggest new approaches, new areas of study, and new writers and works. The Cambridge History of African American Literature is a major achievement both as a work of reference and as a compelling narrative, and it will remain essential reading for scholars and students in years to come.

Banner image courtesy of Molly Adams / Lawrence Times