African American Review

African American Review
Pete Souza · Public domain · source
Title	African American Review
Discipline	Literature, Cultural Studies, History
Language	English
Abbreviation	AAR
Publisher	Penn State University Press
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
History	1967–present
Issn	1062-4783

African American Review African American Review is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal that publishes scholarship, criticism, fiction, poetry, and reviews centered on African American literature and cultural production. It appears alongside journals such as The New Yorker, Callaloo, The Paris Review, Southern Review, and Transition (magazine), and engages with topics connected to figures like W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin. The journal serves readers affiliated with institutions such as Harvard University, Howard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and University of Chicago.

History

Founded in 1967 during a period of scholarly expansion that included publications like Black World (magazine), Freedomways, The Crisis, Ebony (magazine), and Jet (magazine), the journal emerged amid social movements that involved organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Black Panther Party, and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Early editors drew upon archival work at repositories such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Library of Congress, Schlesinger Library, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, and collections related to writers like Richard Wright, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Claude McKay. Over decades the journal has paralleled developments in scholarship at centers including Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, African Studies Association, Modern Language Association, American Studies Association, and programs at Brown University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University.

Editorial Scope and Content

The journal publishes essays that engage primary texts by authors such as Frederick Douglass, Phillis Wheatley, Nella Larsen, Ann Petry, and Gloria Naylor, alongside contemporary analyses of artists like Kendrick Lamar, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ava DuVernay, Jordan Peele, and Beyoncé Knowles. Interdisciplinary work intersects with archives like the National Archives and Records Administration, theoretical traditions represented by scholars affiliated with Cornell University, Rutgers University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, and museums such as the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Studio Museum in Harlem. The Review includes peer-reviewed criticism, book reviews, creative writing, and special issues addressing events and texts linked to Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter, and commemorations of anniversaries for works like Their Eyes Were Watching God and Beloved.

Publication and Distribution

Published by Penn State University Press, the journal distributes through academic channels connected to libraries at Biblioteca Nacional de España, British Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, New York Public Library, and university consortia including JSTOR, Project MUSE, ProQuest, and cataloging systems used by OCLC and WorldCat. Institutional subscriptions come from departments at New York University, University of California, Los Angeles, Northwestern University, University of Texas at Austin, and colleges such as Spelman College and Morehouse College. The Review’s editorial offices have collaborated with presses and programs including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Routledge, and literary series sponsored by National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Notable Contributors and Essays

Contributors include major figures in literature and scholarship such as Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, Elizabeth Alexander, Margo Jefferson, Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, Junot Díaz, Claude Brown, Robert Hayden, Margaret Walker, Ishmael Reed, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Paul Gilroy, bell hooks, Saidiya Hartman, Svetlana Alpers, Houston A. Baker Jr., Darryl Pinckney, Alice Randall, Rita Dove, and Michael Eric Dyson. Essays have examined canonical texts like Invisible Man, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Beloved, and engaged with movements, events, and media projects such as Freedom Summer, Brown v. Board of Education, The Black Panther Party (film), Do the Right Thing, and Selma (film). Special forums have included responses to awards like the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, MacArthur Fellowship, and exhibitions at institutions like the Guggenheim Museum and Tate Modern.

Awards and Recognition

The journal has received recognition within academic and literary communities including citations by Modern Language Association committees, honors from the American Historical Association, and endorsements from centers such as African American Intellectual History Society and Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Individual essays and special issues have been featured in syllabi at Stanford University, Princeton University, and University of Virginia and have been cited in award-winning books and projects supported by organizations like National Endowment for the Humanities, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation. The Review’s role in documenting and shaping debates about texts and events connected to figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Rosa Parks is frequently acknowledged in bibliographies, anthologies, and curricular listings across research libraries and cultural institutions.

Category:American literary journals Category:African American literature