In Memoriam of the Convict Scholar
An 1899 issue of The Monthly Record reports the death of an acclaimed Shakespearian "convict scholar," who served over 20 years on a life sentence.
Featured Poem from the APN Collection: Lonely Nights
A jarring dose of humanity comes with the 1979 poem by Reva Walker at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women.
From Didion to Hesiod: The Center Will Not Hold
Hesiod's poem reminds us that in the end, we must all make sense of our works and days, with the help of—or in spite of—the stories in our heads.
Comparing Editions of David Walker’s Abolitionist Appeal
Digitization allows researchers to trace editorial and authorial changes in archival content. Both are central to the study of this famous abolitionist pamphlet.
Banning The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 California
The Kern County, CA Board of Supervisors got a lesson in the Streisand Effect back in 1939, when they banned The Grapes of Wrath from their libraries and schools.
Filler Words and Floor Holders: The Sounds Our Thoughts Make
So, well, okay, um, like, you know, right?
Are Video Games Like Novels?
Video games as interactive storytelling? Maybe not at first glance, but as Eric Hayot explains, the interplay between game and narrative is real.
Independent Voices of the Black American Press
The digitized newspapers in this open access collection offer insight into the country’s diverse civil rights movements following the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Words on the Way In: A Retrospective
The first installment of a new column on living language: talking about COVID (talk)
Donald Goines, Detroit’s Crime Writer Par Excellence
The writer used hard-boiled fiction as a wide lens to accurately capture the widescreen disparity of Black life in the 1970s.