Remarkable Receptions

Men of various backgrounds and identities who are all incarcerated at Parchman met weekly to discuss Jesmyn Ward’s novel. Episode by Ebony Lumumba   The script was read by Kassandra Timm. Ebony Lumumba, Ph. D. is an associate professor and chair of English at Jackson State University.  She writes, teaches, and thinks most about Black women's resistance and Global South literature.

Who would’ve thought that a joke-telling novelist would have one of the largest vocabularies in African American literature?  Episode by Howard Rambsy II The script was read by Kassandra Timm.

A brief narrative about Ernest Gaines's novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman being adapted into a movie and becoming an instant classic.  Episode by Keith Clark The script was read by Kassandra Timm.

A fresh conceptual framework emerges that gives us tools to discover unique ways to engage with classic novels, like Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon . Episode by Christel Temple  The script was read by Kassandra Timm.

Sometimes a novel proves controversial, and the writer finds herself in a courtroom. Episode by Richard Schur The script was read by Kassandra Timm. Richard Schur is Professor of English Program at Drury University. He is the author of Parodies of Ownership: Hip-Hop Aesthetics and Intellectual Property Law and co-editor (with Lovalerie King) of Justice Unveiled: African American Culture and the La...

Pauline Hopkins published three novels in three years. How did she do it? Episode by Elizabeth Cali The script was read by Kassandra Timm.

Have you ever wondered about the African American novels with the largest vocabularies? A look at literary data offers some answers.  Episode by Howard Rambsy II

The story of how Black writers and intellectuals made sure that Toni Morrison's novel would be acknowledged for decades.  Episode written by Courtney Thorsson The script was read by Kassandra Timm.

In October 1937, an aspiring, 29-year-old author wrote a negative assessment of a recently published novel. Here's the story of what happened next. Episode written by Howard Rambsy II The script was read by Kassandra Timm.

Understanding the reception to Ward’s novel   Episode written by Ebony Lumumba.  Ebony Lumumba, Ph. D. is an associate professor and chair of English at Jackson State University.  She writes, teaches, and thinks most about Black women's resistance and Global South literature.

Remarkable Receptions is a podcast where scholars provide intriguing, unusual, illuminating, surprising, controversial, popular, and little-known responses to African American novels.    

The extraordinary reception to a novel about an escape from slavery.  Episode written by Howard Rambsy II and Elizabeth Cali