In the following essay, Dodgson examines the history and diversity of modern African literature, focusing on the movement's major writers, significant works, and critical response.

In the following essay, Braziel asserts that Jamaica Kincaid's utilization of Obeah, a Caribbean diasporic religion, in “In the Night” “is linked to contemporary Caribbean diasporas and the traversal of spaces, times, and cultures that such migration enacts.”

In the following essay, Welsh cogitates Pauline Melville's particular status as a Guyanese of mixed-race ancestry through a theoretically informed examination of her collection of stories, Shape-shifter.

In the following essay, N'Zengou-Tayo investigates how Edwidge Danticat utilizes traditional Haitian stories and beliefs in her work.

In the following essay, Mullen points to the prevalence of racial stereotypes in short fiction during the 1930s and 1940s, and then traces the transformation of the genre by such authors as Chester Himes, Richard Wright, and others who, according to Mullen, not only achieved mass literary success but also used their works to outline a strategy of calculated racial resistance.

In the following essay, Fienberg views Charles Chestnutt's short story “The Wife of His Youth” as a reflection of the author's own efforts to define himself as a black author.

In the following essay, Price examines the attitude of The Atlantic Monthly to African Americans in the nineteenth century and traces the periodical's relationship with the prominent African American author, Charles Chesnutt.

In the following essay, Muraskin asserts that the short stories published in The Crisis from 1910-1950 reflected the concerns of the black middle class in America during those years.

In the following essay, Baum reflects on the politico-feminist aspects of Zora Neale Hurston's work, drawing parallels with other black female writers such as Nella Larson, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison, remarking that many readers of Hurston's work have tended to focus on her sexual politics instead of her racial politics.

In the following essay, Hamer and Hamer trace the development of African American women's short fiction from the nineteenth century to the present.

In the following essay, Solard provides an analysis of “Blood Burning Moon,” citing the story as an example of Toomer's point of view regarding race relations and spirituality.

In the following essay, Cowart explains how Alice Walker uses her main characters in “Everyday Use” to outline her own vision of the African American community in the past and present, as well as their struggle for identity and liberation.

In the following introduction, excerpted from a short story anthology by writers of African descent, Rowell reflects on the difficulty in choosing a title for this collection, noting that finding common ground across the numerous authors featured, as well as attempting to define the notion of the African diaspora in a way that would reflect the many nationalities represented in this collection, were tasks he did not anticipate until he began work on the project.

In the following essay, Birns contends that Octavia Butler “employs her African American and science fiction heritages to see anew the way things are.”

In the following essay, Musser appraises Marita Bonner's short fiction as a unique collection of work that reflects the struggle of African American women attempting to answer the Harlem Renaissance's challenge for self-improvement via education while living outside the sanctuary of Harlem and struggling with issues of economic hardship, discrimination, and cultural alienation.

In the following essay, Sturgess considers Dionne Brand's particular status as “a Trinidadian Canadian black lesbian feminist” through a theoretically informed analysis of stories from Sans Souci and Other Stories.

In the following essay, Thompson-Deloatch regards Olive Senior's Summer Lightning as a combination of Eurocentric and African styles and thematic concerns, focusing on her treatment of time and space in the short stories in the collection.

In the following essay, Waniek explores the themes of alienation and duality as reflected in Paule Marshall's short fiction.

In the following essay, Holladay explores the depiction of racial, socioeconomic, and sexual prejudice in a small community in Ann Petry's “Miss Muriel.”

In the following essay, Sanders maintains that the main thematic concerns of M. Nourbese Philip's “Stop Frame” are “memory and history and, in part, the relation of what has become, in North America and the Caribbean at least, competing memories of slavery and the Holocaust.”

In the following essay, Roy offers a brief evaluation of the black experience as reflected in Henry Dumas's Ark of Bones and Other Stories.