The Indignant Generation:  A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960, by Lawrence Jackson ’90, received two notable awards. In December the Modern Language Association awarded it the 2011 William Sanders Scarborough Prize, calling it a “magisterial narrative history of African American literature,” as well as “[b]eautifully written and rich in historical detail.” The citation noted that it “should quickly become a standard work in 20th-century African American studies and United States publishing history.” In January, Jackson received news that The Indignant Generation won the Black Caucus of the American Library Association literary award in the nonfiction category.…

Two Wesleyan alumni, separated by a decade, crossed paths recently in a most unusual way. Robert  Gillette ’59 was riveted by the snippet of conversation his daughter-in-law overheard and recounted. It had been between a guest at the Hyde Farmlands Bed and Breakfast in Burkeville, Va., and a young waitress: “What are those log buildings all in a row in the back yard?” asked the guest. “Those are the Jew huts. There were these people called Jews who lived there,” the waitress replied. As Gillette writes in the introduction to The Virginia Plan: William B. Thalhimer and a Rescue From…

Black teenage girls are often negatively represented in national and global popular studies, either as being “at risk” for teenage pregnancy, obesity, or sexually transmitted diseases, or as helpless victims of inner city poverty and violence. These pervasive popular representations often portray Black adolescents’ consumer and leisure culture as corrupt, uncivilized, and pathological. In her insightful new study She’s Mad Real (New York University Press), Oneka LaBennett '94 draws on more than a decade of researching teenage West Indian girls in the Flatbush and Crown Heights sections of Brooklyn to argue that Black youth are, in fact, strategic consumers of…

In her first novel, Among the Wonderful (Steerforth Press), Stacy Carlson ’96 brings to life 1840s New York City, a time when Phineas T. Barnum is a young man, freshly arrived to the area and still unknown to the world. Barnum transforms a dusty natural history museum into a place of human wonders and an extraordinary live animal menagerie, which will become not only the nation's most popular attraction, but also a catalyst that ushers America out of a culture of glassed-in exhibits and into the modern age of entertainment. In this kaleidoscopic setting, Carlson focuses on two compelling characters.…

Jim Drummond ’69 has written a new collection of quirky, funny, and sometimes disturbing short stories, The Coyotes Forgive You (Mongrel Empire Press). His sardonic tales take place in a world where the unexpected is a sure deal, strangers and acquaintances are often more reliable than family, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Themes, settings, and characters from the author’s past and present adventures appear throughout the stories, which contain elements of science fiction, surrealism, and dystopian writing. Drummond says, “Earlier days as a tank driver, drover in a cattle sale barn, murderer of mesquite trees with chainsaws…

Photographer Stephen Gorman ’82 (www.stephengorman.com)  has published Arctic Visions: Encounters at the Top of the World, a lavish and memorable tribute to the land, sea, wildlife, and people of Canada’s North. Gorman traveled throughout the Canadian Arctic and the Northwest Passage aboard the expedition ship Lyubov Orlova for four seasons, giving him an unprecedented opportunity to take pictures of some of our planet’s most spectacular landscapes and wildlife populations. The book’s stunning images and lively text offer a true sense of the spirit and being of this vast, awesome, and historic region. The publication received the 2011 Benjamin Franklin Award…

Justin Kurian ’94 has published his first novel, The Sunlight Lies Beyond (Regent Press), whose protagonist John Arden, a disillusioned American from a Wall Street background, lives in Romania in 1992, a country in transition three years after the collapse of the Communist regime. His life becomes entangled with various people caught in a tumultuous world, among them actors at the National Opera and a talented, ambitious businesswoman who is repressed by society. Arden finds that if he can successfully confront the tribulations ahead, he may possibly vanquish his inner demons. Kurian recently shared some thoughts about working on the…