PUBLICATIONS
Books are in blue
Direct web links to essays are underlined
2009
Signifying Nothing (Novel)
2009
The Threepenny Review, Summer 2009
"Table Talk" Piece
The Threepenny Review, Spring 2009
Mingus, Marcus, and Us (Jazz essay)
The Threepenny Review, Fall 2008 — nominated for The Essay Prize
2008
Chameleon Street (DVD review)
Cineaste, Summer 2008
On the Road to Freedom (Book review)
The Crisis, Spring 2008
Good Moments in a Tough World: The Films of Charles Burnett
Cineaste, Vol. 33, No. 2, 2008
2007
What Is This Thing Called Love?
The Threepenny Review, Fall 2007
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (Capsule movie review)
Cineaste, Vol. 32, No. 4, 2007
“Table Talk” Piece
The Threepenny Review, Spring 2007
Reprinted in Table Talk from The Threepenny Review, Counterpoint Press, 2015
2006
On, Zadie
The Threepenny Review, Fall 2006
Jazz Gods and Monsters
The Threepenny Review, Spring 2006
On Unhappiness, Friendship, and Charlie Brown
The Reading Room, Issue Six, 2006
2005
Say It Loud
Essay on James Brown and review of Brown’s memoir
The Threepenny Review, Fall 2005
2004
For Bean
The Threepenny Review, Fall 2004
African Americans in Cinema: The First Half Century
Cineaste, Vol. 29, No. 4, 2004
2003
Tribute to Rudolph Fisher
Black Issues Book Review, May-June 2003
For Dean
The Threepenny Review, Spring 2003
Call Him . . . Ishmael (Cover story on Ishmael Reed)
Black Issues Book Review, January-February 2003
2002
“Ali" (Movie review)
Film Quarterly, Summer 2002
Chester Himes and the Test of Time
Paperback Parade, No. 58, 2002
How I Became Black
The Reading Room, Issue Four, 2002
Almost There
The Threepenny Review, Spring 2002
Selected for inclusion in Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 232, 2007
Monster’s Ball (Movie review)
Cineaste, Vol. 27, No. 3, 2002
Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth
Book review and interview with author, Derrick Bell
Black Issues Book Review, September-October 2002
Revenge of the Nerd: A Look at Black Exploitation Films
The Iowa Review, 2002
"Burning All Illusions: Writings from the Nation on Race" (Book review)
Black Issues Book Review, September-October 2002
"Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don’t Feel at Home" (Book review)
Black Issues Book Review, July-August 2002
"The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader" (Book review)
Black Issues Book Review, May-June 2002
Miracle at St. Anna (Book review)
Black Issues Book Review, March-April 2002
2001
Memories of an Ex-would-be Cartoonist
The Threepenny Review, Summer 2001
"Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism" (Book review)
Cineaste, Vol. 27, No. 1, 2001
St. Clair Bourne: Documenting the African-American Experience (Essay and interview)
Cineaste, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2001
“Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten” (Book review)
Black Issues Book Review, May-June 2001
Petty Cash (short story)
Apalachee Review, No. 49, Spring 2001
2000
“Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray” (Book review),
Black Issues Book Review, November-December 2000
“Return of the Marksman: Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison” (Book review)
The Threepenny Review, Spring 2000
“Don’t Cry for Me: An Attack on Racial Condescension in Coverage of the Arts”
The Reading Room, Issue Two, 2000
“Homecoming” (Movie review)
Cineaste, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2000