MAKING CALLALOO
25 Years of Black Literature
edited by Charles Henry Rowell
Founded 25 years ago by editor and University of Virginia professor Rowell (Ancestral House: The Black Short Story in the Americas and Europe, 1995), Callaloo has become one of the most important journals of literature by black authors. While mainstream publishing has emphasized black literature that is about being black, Rowell gave writers a forum in which to write without the burden of being spokespeople: the work was judged only on its own merits. The result is a journal with a distinguished record of outstanding writers, as we see here in stories and poetry from some of the best, including Octavia Butler, Edwidge Danticat, Alice Walker, and Charles Johnson.
An appealing anthology, with an array of voices that should please anyone interested in black literature—or literature period.