About Callaloo
Callaloo has emerged as the most essential and continuously published journal in matters pertinent to African American and African Diaspora Studies worldwide. Dr. Charles H. Rowell founded Callaloo in 1976 at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. With its emphasis on critical studies of the arts and humanities, as well as creative writing, Callaloo has been a vital and much-anticipated source of information and lively conversation among both established and emerging scholars and creative writers. The journal publishes original work by and about writers and visual artists of African descent worldwide.
As a highly-acclaimed international showcase of arts and letters, Callaloo offers an engaging mixture of fiction, poetry, critical articles, interviews, drama, and visual art. The journal frequently features annotated bibliographies, special issues dedicated to prominent writers, literary, social, cultural themes, full-color, original artwork, and photography.
Over the years, the journal broadened its reach with the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops and the Callaloo Conferences, both of which attracted scholars and writers from around the world. In 2018, Dr. Rowell was awarded the Madam C.J. Walker Award by the long-established Hurston/Wright Foundation (Washington, D.C.) for his dedication to supporting and sustaining African American and African Diaspora literature. In 2025, Dr. Rowell was awarded the Pen/ Nora Magid Award for Editing. The journal’s two editorial boards (Associate Editors/Contributing and Advisory Editors) consist of 30-plus distinguished scholars, writers, and advisors.
Callaloo has published continuously since 1976, and has been with its publisher, Johns Hopkins University Press since 1990.
In 2025, Callaloo moved its editorial home to Brown University's Literary Arts department. The journal is sponsored by Brown, and by the Callaloo Foundation, Inc, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve the literature and culture of the African Diaspora by publishing Callaloo in perpetuity.
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