Press Release: Callaloo Literary Journal Announces New Genre Editors

Callaloo Contributor: Marlon Ross

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 16:38:36 GMT

Callaloo Contributor: Marlon Ross

"An Interview with the Editors of Love Is A Dangerous Word: The Selected Poems Of Essex Hemphill" by Marlon B. Ross appears in Callaloo Issue 43.4 .

What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from this interview?

My interview with the two editors, Robert F. Reid-Pharr and John Keene, of Essex Hemphill's "Love Is a Dangerous Word: Selected Poems" epitomizes Callaloo 's ongoing commitment to the recovery of important creative work by artists of the African Diaspora. I want through the interview to emphasize not only the importance of this kind of editorial labor but also the personal, intellectual stake that helps to shape how these two brilliant scholars approach Hemphill and his work. Having passed away from HIV/AIDS at an early age, Hemphill represents a generation of Black queer authors whose impact we cannot afford to forget, and this volume plays a vital role in helping to consolidate the poet's legacy. I was especially interested in the editors' views on Hemphill's influence on his generation as well as his influence on current work, including on the editors, both of whom knew Hemphill personally. Topics of the interview include Hemphill as a poet of queer desire, its inhibitions and impediments, as his poetry vividly captures the brokenheartedness of gay male cruising, as well as the visceral, material joys of queer sex. How does Hemphill address the HIV/AIDS crisis, as an early activist as well as someone deeply aware of his own impending death from the virus. In the interview, the editors confirm the ways in which Hemphill was a "local" poet who gives us a complex, compelling portrait of Washington, D.C. at a time when "Chocolate City" is being maligned by the powers-that-be as the nation's crime capital. Beyond the local, the volume helps us to place Hemphill within the long tradition of African American poetics, and as such brings attention to the poet's craft as an experimenter with form, structure, narrative, and voice. I was especially curious to hear from Reid-Pharr and Keene about their own pedagogy as teachers of Hemphill's work, as the volume will certainly bring greater attention to what Hemphill continues to teach us within our classrooms.

Can you share about how your academic journey led you to Callaloo ?

I became involved in Callaloo almost by accident when I gave a paper entitled “ Callaloo , Everyone?”, delivered at a special session, “ Callaloo and 25 Years of Writing in the African Diaspora,” of the Modern Language Association Annual Convention in New Orleans in 2001. I believe that this became my first publication in the journal, when it was printed in “Reading Callaloo /Eating Callaloo ” (volume 30.1 [Winter 2007]), the first of four 30th anniversary special Issues, guest-edited by Shona N. Jackson and Karina L. Céspedes. After 2001, I became an Associate Editor of the journal. When Charles Rowell asked me to serve as the section editor for criticism and theory, I took on that role for more than a decade. One simply could not refuse a request from the great editor. I was also heavily involved over this period with the annual Callaloo conferences, and, along with Dagmawi Woubshet, played a key role in organizing the first Oxford conference.

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you ?

I feel that I gained so much more from my involvement with Callaloo than I have given to it. It became, indeed, a center of my intellectual life. Adjudicating the criticism and theory submissions, helping to organize the conferences and participating in them, occasionally publishing in the journal, particularly papers delivered at the conferences, conversing deeply with Callaloo colleagues, including poets and fiction writers -- all these activities have had an indelible influence on how I think, write, and teach. I was trained as a specialist in British Romanticism, with my publications, research, and teaching in the early part of my career devoted to this field. Of course, I had long read deeply in African American literature, but I made a shift to teaching and publishing in this field after being asked to submit an essay on black masculinity in a volume on that subject. Becoming a member of the Callaloo collective, so to speak, facilitated this field shift, as it shaped, exemplified, and affirmed my ongoing commitment to African American and African Diaspora studies.

How does this interview connect to the larger body of your work?

One cannot browse issues of the journal without gaining a deep sense of the longer tradition and future of work in this field, its import, its reach, and its intellectual and artistic power. It would be a challenge to try to quantify how working on and reading the journal has helped to feed my own work, but that is no doubt the case. The journal is the published proof of a much larger collection of activities and projects. To be in dialogue with these is to be sustained creatively. For example, I had the privilege of being on a panel at the "Love" conference at Princeton in 2012. I delivered a paper entitled “‘What’s Love but a Secondhand Emotion?” Man-on-Man Passion in the Contemporary Black Gay Romance Novel." Sharon Holland was a co-presenter, Koritha Mitchell the moderator, and the respondents included Jafari Allen, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Francesca Royster, Salamishah Tillet, and Dag Woubshet. It was not so much delivering the paper as the conversation that ensued with my co-panelists that was so inspiring. Participating in that panel helped to motivate and shape the completion of my third book, Sissy Insurgencies . The conversation on that panel is, to my knowledge, not recorded. The paper itself was published in Callaloo 36.3 (Summer 2013), but the paper is not the sum-total of the spirited dialogue that ensued on the panel. Although that conversation seems ephemeral, its intellectual impact still reverberates in the thinking and feeling not only that informed "Sissy Insurgencies" but also that continues to inform other book projects, and I would guess, also the ongoing work of my co-panelists.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

When I was a young boy, I had so many contributing influences. I had older sisters who taught me to read before I started school. I had a mother who was an avid reader and artist, although, as Alice Walker observes, the creativity of Black women of that generation often got funneled into gardening, and this was the case with my mom. My mother's mother was a great storyteller. When she visited us in South Texas from her home in North Carolina, she would not only regale us with stories about our family history and with folktales but also she would visit our segregated school to tell stories to the students there. The elder sister closest to me kept a poetry journal, which I emulated, and we would memorize and recite to each other all sorts of poems, such as those by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. At home, church, and school, literacy was prized. I loved reading and writing as far back as I have a memory. I went to college with the intent of becoming a journalist as a political science major but got waylaid by literature and philosophy. In "Sissy Insurgencies" I write about how a passion for reading seems to make a boy into a sissy. Although I played sports, loved the piano (which I played badly), and could be found doing every available extracurricular school activity, sitting by myself in my room reading occupied a large part of my sissy childhood. Readers frequently desire to emulate what they read. I guess you could say that becoming a writer was an extension of being a reader.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Is there anything else you would like readers to know about your work or about you?

I am proud that the most recent publication in the Callaloo Book Series will be a multi-disciplinary volume that I've co-composed and co-edited with K. Ian Grandison. Race, Space, and Culture: Essays on Cultural Theory and the Built Environment is scheduled for publication later this year from Johns Hopkins University Press. We are excited through this volume to broaden the Callaloo imprint to include landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning, historic preservation, and space theory.

It was not in my plan to spend so much of my career working on the history, culture, theory, and literature related to Black gender politics. Once I get into publication a second volume devoted to this subject, a follow-up to my second book entitled "Manning the Race," I'd love to move on to other interests. I think, however, that sometimes we are called to do work beyond our self-conscious intentions.

How do you hope to support and uplift your students?

So much of my time has been spent in mentoring future generations of undergraduates and, within and beyond the institutions where I've taught, so many graduate students and emerging scholars. This labor, too, seems so ephemeral, but I hope that I've provided some guidance -- if in no other way, by being a close reader and respondent for their work. Upon entering graduate school, I had no idea that this would be so consuming an obligation, or that it would be a source of inspiration for my own work. Although I never had the privilege of an African American professor/mentor in college or graduate school, as I embarked on my own academic career, I quickly grasped the importance of becoming exactly that for my own students.

MARLON ROSS is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness, Manning the Race: Reforming Black Men in the Jim Crow Era , and The Contours of Masculine Desire: Romanticism and the Rise of Women’s Poetry .

Callaloo Contributor: Annastecia Ebisike

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:13:34 GMT

Callaloo Contributor: Annastecia Ebisike

Annastecia Ebisike's story, "Borderline", appears in Callaloo Issue 43.4 .

What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your story "Borderline" ?

Hope, strength, resilience, and a sense of community.

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo ?

My creative journey has been shaped by movement, crossing borders, and learning how to name myself in new places. Moving to the United States forced me to sit with questions of home, belonging, and identity in ways I had never done before. Writing became a way to process the disorientation of starting over, the losses that come with leaving familiar spaces, and the slow work of building a sense of self across cultures. I began to pay closer attention to memory, language, and the small details of everyday survival that I experienced. When I embraced the thought of having this part of me out there to be seen and read by others, Callaloo felt like a natural home for my writing. The work I am drawn to, and the work I try to create, lives at the intersection of place, movement, and Black life, and Callaloo has long been a space that honors those layered narratives.

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

Being part of Callaloo means being in conversation with a long tradition of Black writers whose work takes our history and lived experiences seriously. It feels like entering a space that values depth, care, and honesty in storytelling. For me, it is meaningful to share work in a place that understands Black life as layered, global, and transnational, never singular or fixed.

How does "Borderline" connect to the larger body of your creative practice?

Today we live in a volatile world, with immigration under constant attack and often framed as a threat rather than a shared human reality. My work pushes back against that framing by centering lived experience and insisting on the humanity behind movement across borders. I am interested in how stories can become a unifying force in moments when policies and rhetoric are designed to divide. I write from the position of someone who has crossed spaces and had to remake home in unfamiliar places, and I am interested in how storytelling can resist erasure and single stories about migrants. Writing in this way allows me to hold space for complexity and to remind readers that migration is not an abstract issue but a collection of real lives unfolding in real time.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

To hold memory. I started writing to make sense of change, and writing gave me a place to sit with questions I did not yet have answers to, especially during moments of transition in my life. Over time, it became a way to hold memory and to slow things down. It has always been about preserving, witnessing, and understanding, not just for myself, but in the hope that others might recognize something of their own lives in the stories I tell.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Is there anything else you would like readers to know about your work or about you?

I am working on a series of creative nonfiction pieces that explore the experience of graduate study as an international student. I am still discovering the exact shape the project will take, but my hope is to create a space where readers can connect over shared experiences, reflect on navigating new spaces, and find community in the challenges and possibilities of the moment we are living through.

My story is still evolving and will continue to do so. I am a product of migration, of moving between places, and of carrying memory and identity across borders. My work grows from that experience, and from a desire to capture the small, often overlooked moments that shape who we are. I hope that as you read, you’ll step into those moments with me, see the world through these experiences, and connect with the stories I am still learning to tell.

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” — Natalie Goldberg

How do you hope to support and uplift other writers working in your genre?

I hope to encourage other writers to use their voices boldly and consistently, without holding back. I know we all hesitate at times, trying to protect ourselves from systems or people who might not embrace our ideas. Still, I believe in supporting work that is thoughtful, careful, and true to the writer’s voice, especially for those who are still finding their footing. Share your stories, because you never know who might be inspired, or even changed, by what you dared to put into the world.

ANNASTECIA EBISIKE is a writer and English doctoral student at the City University of New York Graduate Center. She earned her BA in English and History from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and her MA in English from the University of North Dakota. Born into multiplicity and shaped by movement, she explores what it means to belong, to speak, and to feel across boundaries. Her writing moves between fiction, nonfiction, and the spaces that blur the two.

Social Media:

@annaebisike

Meet Our New Co-Fiction Editor, Olufunke Ogundimu

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:07:15 GMT

Callaloo is honored to announce the appointment of a new co-fiction editor, Olufunke Ogundimu. Olufunke was gracious enough to share what she plans to bring to the genre editor role, as well as her hopes for future of Callaloo and our community of writers.

Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to specialize in this genre?

My work has always centered on the storytelling traditions of Africa and the African diaspora, whether through prose, poetry, or oral narrative forms that shape Black expression through time. I am deeply drawn to the short story form as it feels like both inheritance and innovation, a continuum that stretches from traditional folktales and griot storytelling to contemporary experimentations in fiction. At the intersection of literature, culture, and storytelling, I have been captivated by stories that reflect both personal and collective histories. Fiction, for me, provides a unique space where these dimensions intersect. Over time, my fascination grew with how writers use various forms, prose, folktale, music, or oral poetry traditions to convey memory and meaning. This deep continuity between old and new styles of storytelling has been instrumental in guiding my work.

What excited you most about taking on this genre for Callaloo journal?

Callaloo has long set the standard for intellectual and creative excellence in African diasporic literary traditions. What excites me most is being part of that legacy, curating new voices alongside iconic ones and allowing the journal to continue evolving with the times in the world of storytelling. There’s real joy in discovering a story that extends the lineage of Black aesthetics while also challenging how we define storytelling. Callaloo offers a rare opportunity to showcase the breadth and brilliance of the Black world’s imagination through compelling stories.

I am grateful for the chance to highlight the full range of fiction, from traditional prose forms rooted in community narratives to contemporary works that break the boundaries of language and structure. The journal’s history reminds us that innovation often begins with remembering where our stories come from, and I’m eager to continue that conversation with today’s fiction

writers.

Are there any trends or themes in this genre that you’re particularly excited to explore?

I love the bold cross-genre experimentation happening among Black writers today. Many writers are blending genres such as speculative fiction, horror, fantasy, memoir, and literary fiction to explore complex themes of identity, history, and future possibilities. They confront contemporary issues like climate change, migration, gender, and technology, all grounded in the Black diasporic experience. There’s a growing emphasis on recovering forgotten voices and reexamining history through new lenses, creating an interplay of past and future that I hope to highlight in Callaloo.

At the same time, I believe there's a place for conventional storytelling within the narrative landscape. While I appreciate experimental forms, my primary criterion for any work is that it is a good story, one that engages the reader and evokes emotion, regardless of its structure. This is where the balance lies; a strong narrative can emerge from either traditional frameworks or the innovative hybrid styles.

I’m inspired by the ways many writers are folding echoes of oral storytelling, myth, and folklore into modern prose, sometimes subtly, sometimes boldly. This hybrid work challenges the distinctions between fiction, essay, and poetry, feeling both innovative and deeply rooted in culture. It reminds me that the central concern of fiction has always been voice, how it conveys history while also imagining new futures. This can be achieved through conventional stories and groundbreaking experimentation.

4. How do you hope to support and uplift writers working in this genre?

Callaloo has always been more than a publication—it’s a community. I will carry on in that same spirit, by offering a space where fiction writers feel seen, valued, and daring enough to take creative risks. That means mentoring emerging writers, amplifying underrepresented diasporic perspectives, and ensuring our pages reflect the global scope of Black creativity. Ultimately, I aim to help writers understand that their voices matter in shaping our literary and cultural futures. Black writers have historically created against the constraints of form, bending language to voice collective memory, ancestral wisdom, and imaginative freedom.

I will support writers by genuinely engaging with their work and by encouraging them to draw strength from cultural memory as much as from craft. I plan to uplift fiction writing by affirming the beauty of Black storytelling in all its textures, the ancestral voices that anchor us, and the new voices that lead us forward. Callaloo stands as the bridge between both, and I’m honored to help carry that legacy.

Olufunke Ogundimu was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Mississippi State University and a Research Editor at the African Poetry Digital Portal. She is also co-fiction editor at Callaloo . She holds a Ph.D. in English with specializations in Creative Writing, Ethnic Studies, and Digital Humanities from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is a Caine Prize for African Writing finalist and a Miles Morland Writing Scholarship finalist. Her short story, “The Armed Letter Writers,” won a Pushcart Prize. She has received fellowships from the Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop, FEMRITE African Women Writers’ Residency, Anaphora Residency, LARB/USC Publishing Workshop, Atlantic Centre for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Mississippi Arts Commission. She is a graduate of the University of Lagos and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas MFA International program in fiction. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in The Republic, Prairie Schooner, Southern Review, Poets & Writers, Narrative, Massachusetts Review, Black Warrior Review, Obsidian, adda, Transition Magazine, New Orleans Review, JaladaAfrica, Asymptote, Johannesburg Review of Books, Red Rock Review, and other places.

Callaloo Contributor: KC Lehman

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 19:32:48 GMT

Callaloo Contributor: KC Lehman

KC Lehman's fiction piece "Big Mama's Gun" appears in Callaloo 43.4.

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo ?

In the last few years, I've attempted to design my own MFA program through workshops and residencies. One of them was The Kenyon Review in 2024, and I had the incredible experience of learning from Z.Z. Packer. Z.Z. has an encyclopedic mind, and I altered my writing practice for good after that workshop. I shared with her my challenges in finding a home for my work. In my mind, much of it was too specific to the experiences of Black (American) people for many of the publications I was coming across. She immediately directed me to Callaloo . I'm forever grateful.

How does this work connect to the larger body of your creative practice?

I've been thinking a lot about how women, Black women specifically, endure in life. In our relationships, in our families, in our communities, our strength is often lauded. Still, my generation (Gen X) understands that being strong all the time is overrated and it's killing us. "Big Mama's Gun" connects to the larger body of my practice because it explores a woman unconventionally overcoming endurance. She doesn't accept it; in fact, she gets mad about it. When I think about the other pieces in my collection, this is often the case with the women characters: finding themselves in circumstances of suffering, and instead of enduring, they save themselves.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

I have always written. Stories, songs, poetry, even erotica. All of it has been the product of an overactive imagination of an only child. When you grow up in a world of adults, there's a lot to overhear—a lot of whispering and talking in code around you—and for me, that was fodder for creating. It was my way of making sense of what I wasn't supposed to know or couldn't understand. I come from a family of immaculate storytellers, and every story I heard growing up had a multitude of characters and a specific snapshot of the environment I grew up in. In this era of writing, what's inspiring me more these days is my hometown of Los Angeles. The city has been through so much in my lifetime, and I have yet to come across someone who showcases the city as I know it.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers?

I have one piece from the collection that I completed recently, called "Blue Pills," and I am excited about it. It explores dating after the age of 45. I haven't submitted it for publication yet, but I hope to soon.

KC Lehman is a fiction writer and oral storyteller who enjoys music, mysteries, and the rare luxury of a midday nap. Her work focuses on exploring the lives of Black women, the secrets they carry from generation to generation, and how biases like colorism and featurism affect self-perception and worldview. When not introducing her kids to ’90s music or selling real estate in her hometown of Los Angeles, KC contemplates and sometimes chats with the characters that live in her head until she gets them on the page. A graduate of UCLA, KC’s writing has received support from Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, Roots. Wounds. Words. Inc, The Hurston/Wright Foundation, Anaphora Arts, and PEN America. She is also a 2025 Tin House Summer Resident. Her writing has earned her placement in several writer’s workshops, including the Tin House, Lighthouse Writers, and Kenyon Review workshops.

Website:

kctellstales.com

Callaloo Guest Editor: Omi Osun Joni L. Jones

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:01:00 GMT

Callaloo Guest Editor: Omi Jones

Omi Osun Joni L. Jones served as guest editor, along Edmund T. Gordon, and Celeste Henery, of the special section on the "The Austin School Black Studies Manifesto" in Callaloo 43.4 .

What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from the special section on the the Austin School Black Studies Manifesto?

I hope readers take away whatever they find useful in our contribution to Callaloo , and that that discovery fuels their imaginations. In my portions of this special section, I wanted to emphasize the need for creativity in all of its forms, and the complexities and Spiritual requirements of working deeply with others. Developing this contribution actually created a practice in what is needed to make work together. While Edmund T. Gordon and I seem to guide much that appears in this special section, Celeste Henery—Research Associate in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at UT, and graduate of the Anthropology Diaspora Program—spent more than 40 hours in conversation with Ted and me, and was vital in uncovering the intellectual and political underpinnings of what is presented here. It was Celeste who helped identify the essential fertile ground of sociality and connection to something beyond the self that drove the work for many of us. All of this—along with months of behind-the-scenes communication with all of the contributors and the Callaloo staff—was generously offered up with much grace and dedication. This document could not have come together without Celeste’s wisdom, intelligence and Spirit.

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo ?

I believe I first became aware of Callaloo in grad school when I was researching Black performing art forms. I respected the writers and visual artists I found on its pages, and it—along with Camille Billops and James Hatch’s Artist and Influence—gave me models for how writing might be understood as visual art. Juxtaposing essays and literature alongside visual expressions created a synergy among the forms that I strive to encourage in my work.

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

Being represented in Callaloo puts me in the company of so many venerated and distinctive burgeoning creators. The journal’s commitment to the African diaspora is especially meaningful to me as I work to know Blackness across geographies and imposed political systems. It would be exciting if an African diasporic gathering occurred around the ideas in the special section, where so many might explore what role institution building holds during the sinkhole of late-stage capitalism and escalating environmental degradation. That could be electric, truly opening to the unknown!

How does this work connect to the larger body of your creative practice?

My creative practice continues to evolve with less emphasis on embodying work myself and more focus on writing fiction/creative non-fiction accompanied by engagement installations around that writing. I came to these explorations, in large measure, as a result of the saturation of possibilities launched during my experiences with Black Studies at UT. I want people to come together—across every divide—and dance, sweat, laugh, eat, plant, listen, nurture, and allow the impediments to Love to dissolve. So much inner and communal work is needed. Can we go there? This time seems ripe for that which has not been done before.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about your work or about you?

As readers look at the special section of this Callaloo issue, I’d like them to know that the visual artists who are included have a long history with Black Studies at UT. Deborah Roberts, Minnie Marianne Miles, Michael Ray Charles, Tonya Engel and Daniel Alexander Jones each had work exhibited in the hallways and galleries of Black Studies—along with Moyo Okediji, Christopher Adejumo, Donna Bruton, Yasmin Hernandez, Shay Youngblood, Senalka McDonald and many others. Michael created the piece presented in Callaloo while sitting in a faculty meeting, and Tonya’s images were often used as the visual stamp for productions in the Performing Blackness Series. It is important that the special section honor those relationships and give readers a way into the world of Black Studies at UT beyond the stories and analyses in the essays.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

Libraries are like temples where acolytes come to bathe and practice becoming the luminaries we can all be! Verbal language can feel limited until the poet flows through you—and you create your own system! Perhaps, finding a way to put on the page page what visual artist Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees calls "vocables"—Spiritually guided sonic impulses. I fell in love with Gwendolyn Brooks in high school when I was on the competitive speech team. I found hidden away parts of myself when I discovered Maud Martha—a little Black girl trying to figure out who she was in a confounding world. Right there in a book! Gwendolyn Brooks—from my Chicago roots—made me see myself as valuable. From the opening chapter of the novel—“. . .it was comforting to find that what was common could also be a flower.” My own fiction owes an obvious debt to her creations.

What do you find most rewarding about being part of the Callaloo Community?

Callaloo is a space for Black truth telling. It buoys me to participate in the ongoing enterprise of exploring the many contours of Blackness. It reminds me that I am not a solo sojourner.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers?

I have residencies this spring that will allow me to deepen my attunement with the fiction I'm writing. I’ll be working with communities to use theatrical jazz aesthetics in opening the work beyond the linearity of print, and incorporating the participants' own relationships with the ideas in the stories. In each location—Palo Alto, Austin, San Antonio, Charlottesville—the participants will become my co-creators. I am working toward publishing this collection, and look forward to what I might learn from raucous installations where we all create the worlds of Black little girls together.

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

Dr. Phil Decker, my undergraduate mentor, introduced me to “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm” by Wallace Stephens. The poem describes the experience of being absorbed by reading, and one line really moves me—“the reader became the book.” I imagine readers “leaning late and reading there” because they found something in what I’ve written that stimulated excitement or annoyance or curiosity in them. The poem makes clear how visceral—and therefore transformative—reading can be. YES!

How do you hope to support and uplift other writers working in your genre?

Some of the support I offer is formal—I serve on literary review boards, offer embodied writing workshops (many, with my spouse Sharon Bridgforth ), and provide dramaturgical services for performances/rituals/ceremonies. I also do a great deal of listening to so many creators as they process the tenderness of bringing forth whole structures that are unique to their Spirits. It is a privilege to assist people who are shining a Light that has the potential to illuminate paths of possibility for others. And all of this is so powerfully mutual—my Spirit expands with each encounter.

Omi Osun Joni L. Jones’ work is grounded in Black Feminist principles and theatrical jazz aesthetics. Her original performances include sista docta—a critique of academic life; and Sittin’ in a Saucer—a series of readings with audience/witnesses using literature as prompts for engagement. Among her ethnographic works are Searching for Ọ̀ṣun—a performance installation around the Divinity of the River; and Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Àṣẹ, and the Power of the Present Moment (Ohio State University Press, 2015)—a collaborative ethnography focusing on three theatrical jazz visionaries. Omi has been shaped by Robbie McCauley’s activist art, Laurie Carlos’s insistence on being present, and Barbara Ann Teer’s overt union of Art and Spirit. She is Professor Emerita from the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin, a mother, a Queer wife, and a curious sojourner.

Callaloo Guest Editor: Omi Jones

Omi Osun Joni L. Jones served as guest editor, along Edmund T. Gordon, and Celeste Henery, of the special section on the "The Austin School Black Studies Manifesto" in Callaloo 43.4 .

What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from the special section on the the Austin School Black Studies Manifesto?

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo ?

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

How does this work connect to the larger body of your creative practice?

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about your work or about you?

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

What do you find most rewarding about being part of the Callaloo Community?

Callaloo is a space for Black truth telling. It buoys me to participate in the ongoing enterprise of exploring the many contours of Blackness. It reminds me that I am not a solo sojourner.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers?

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

How do you hope to support and uplift other writers working in your genre?

Callaloo Contributor Feature: Daniel B. Summerhill

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:15:23 GMT

Callaloo Contributor Feature: Daniel B. Summerhill

Daniel B. Summerhill's review of Love is a Dangerous Word: Selected Poems by Essex Hemphill, edited by John Keene and Robert F. Reid-Pharr, appears in Callaloo 43.4. Get a copy here.

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

"Hope is invented daily." - James Baldwin

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

It means being a part of a legacy of folks dedicated to witnessing and documenting the human condition. At present and at recent, at least in the West, the condition of Black folks and African American diasporic people--is--the human condition. So being a part of a platform whose mission serves that work feels good.

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo?

I applied for Callaloo's workshop in Oxford as a sophomore in college and then again as a junior to no avail. I also submitted work to the journal back then also without any success; however, the community of intelligence I discovered in Callaloo made it a place I returned to, contributor or not.

What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your piece?

My piece is much larger than me. Much larger than any obsession I may try to grapple with in work of my own, but rather a review of the newly selected poems of the late Essex Hemphill assembled by John Keene and Robert F. Reid-Pharr. Since the magnitude of Hemphill's work and life cannot be summed up in my review. At the very least, I hope readers are able to understand that there are teeth in love. That there is a also a lineage of struggle, of poets who understand the potency of language and have used their enterprise in service of making clear their politics. Our politic is our truest element of craft.

How does this work connect to the larger body of your creative practice?

Though getting font and text down on paper is a mostly solitudinous effort, writing is conversational by nature and in my own work I am in constant conversation with the idea of self-confrontation, love, the complexity of human relationships, the same as Hemphill. So being able to sit with his work ahead of its release-- to sit with the intentionality of John Keene and Robert F. Reid-Pharr's curation and framing of Hemphill legacy and Hemphill's work enlivened my own work in progress and likely work yet to come.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

I believe I am a writer because of a few folks: my oldest sister Tenesha Smith who is also a poet and who left behind an album of poems she had written while in high school for me when she moved away; my 9th grade English teacher who bought me The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty and my first journal; my grandfather who was a carpenter and made magic with his hands, the same way poets do; and lastly, James Baldwin, who says,

"I suppose finally the most important thing was that I am a writer. That sounds grandiloquent, but the truth is that I don't think that, seriously speaking, anybody in his right mind would want to be a writer. But you do discover that you are a writer and then you haven't got any choice. You live that life or you won't live any…If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life, you won't live any life at all. That's the only advice you can give anybody. And it's not advice, it's an observation."

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers?

I have two forthcoming projects that will be out in the world at some point in the near future:

Praying for Rain is a work of docupoetics that I hope serves to forefront James Baldwin's grapplings, but also magnify the connections that we might make to today's social and political landscape. The title, “Praying for Rain” comes from Nikky Finney’s introduction to Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems. Finney got the quote from listening to Baldwin’s 1961 interview with Studs Terkel who asks Jimmy, “who are you now.” Baldwin responds, “who indeed? I may be able to tell you who I am, but I am also discovering who I am not. I want to be an honest man. And I want to be a good writer. I don't know if one ever gets to be what one wants to be. You just have to play it by ear, and pray for rain.” One of two of the title poems in the collection appears in Callaloo issue 41.5. James Baldwin's prose (essays and novels) are chronicled a great deal, however he thought of himself as a poet first and wrote poems early on and then towards the end of his life. I wanted to be in conversation with that part of Baldwin, the part that is overshadowed but instrumental to his mind and his view of the world.

My other forthcoming project , Hand Shuffle: On Kobe, Four Black Moms and Good Music, was written as an epistle to my mother— my four Black moms—and Black maternal figures everywhere. Hand shuffle uses music, popular culture and the late Kobe Bryant to grapple with grief, love and a maternal-son coming-of-age. I write candidly about growing up between East and West Oakland in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Having never met my father, I chronicle my boyhood fantasy of NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant being my long lost father. Using episodic threads of music history, literary geography and popular culture, I grapple with the absence, while recognizing the hands of each of my sisters, or how my four Black moms were the salve I had been searching for throughout my coming-of-age.

How do you hope to support and uplift other writers working in your genre?

In whatever way is most helpful to them. As a professor, I teach in a way that makes it apparent that everyone in the room is on a writing journey, and that some folks are further along than others and that's okay; we have a common goal, to make each other stronger writers. As a poet, I hope to uplift the idea of possibility and that our work as poets is first the work of being engaged and socially conscious human beings, and that the page comes second to that. I hope to help folks understand that if we lead with that mindset, the poems write themselves. I hope folks know they can depend on me in tangible ways. I hope poets know that I don't make a distinction between being a poet and a human being. Be it the classroom, workshop, discourse, hoop etc. I hope to better support the idea of being a good literary citizen.

Writer Bio:

Daniel B. Summerhill is a poet and essayist from Oakland, CA. He is the author of Divine, Divine, Divine and Mausoleum of Flowers. The inaugural Poet Laureate of Monterey County, Summerhill has earned fellowships from Baldwin for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Watering Hole and elsewhere. His work has been published widely, including venues such as The Academy of American Poets, Obsidian, Ploughshares, Callaloo, The Indiana Review, The Rumpus, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. Winner of the 2023 Indiana Review 1/2K Prize and the inaugural Rumpus Prize for Nonfiction, Daniel is a Professor of Poetry at Santa Clara University and believes in the liberation of oppressed peoples everywhere, especially through the dissolution of empire.

Social Media:

@ bennysummerhill (IG, Twitter and Bluesky)

Website:

www.danielsummerhill.com

Callaloo Contributor Feature: Tryphena Yeboah

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 22:39:00 GMT

Our next Contributor Feature comes from Tryphena Yeboah, whose work appears in Callaloo 43.2 .

What inspired your piece in this issue?

I wrote “Marriage”, well, during the first year of my marriage. I was surprised to see how differently my husband and I approach finances, how our upbringings have informed how we think about money and what’s worth purchasing, particularly in a season of new and small beginnings. We’re learning to live in the tension of scarcity and freedom. I think it’s much harder than it seems. A “Stone Room” was inspired by the days surrounding my wedding. I had travelled back home to Ghana for the ceremony and had to sleep in the room I’d spent so many of my teenage years in. It was strange to be back there. Everything was still the same after all those years, and yet, it felt like nothing had changed. Being back there brought back memories of the house, many of which were painful, but there was also a surprising sense of comfort in it. For the poem “Burn,” I was at a colleague’s house and just watched the fascination in their child’s eyes as he looked at a burning candle. He was curious and in awe he could almost touch it. I thought a lot about unending vigilance and care for children. Many of my older friends tell me that it never stops, not even when your child is a responsible adult living out of the house. I am deeply interested in that.

In one word how would you describe your contribution to Callaloo 43.2?

Honest.

How did your creative journey or background lead you to this publication?

I suppose none of these three poems would exist if I wasn’t in the habit of thinking and reflecting about my life and how I live my days. So, I’ll say the practice of journaling and reading over the years has taught me to not merely move through moments, even the most mundane ones, but to also interrogate my emotions and impressions of things, to sit still, to wade deeper, and to grow the kind of curiosity that has me questioning and wondering and imagining and looking beneath the surface of things.

Tell us about a book or writer that influenced your work in this issue

Rather than a book or writer, it was the simple and ordinary events that were happening in my life at the time that led to these poems. I love that writing invites me to pay attention to my life and the world around me.

More About Tryphena:

TRYPHENA YEBOAH is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing Director at Tennessee Wesleyan University.

https://www.tryphenayeboah.com/

Callaloo Contributor Feature: Lori L. Tharps

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 18:10:47 GMT

Callaloo Contributor Feature: Lori L. Tharps

Continuing our Callaloo Community Spotlight series, we welcome Author Lori L. Tharps to the Callaloo blog. Lori's book review, "The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir by Martha S. Jones" appears in Callaloo 43.2.

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo ?

When I moved to Spain to launch my creative writing career, I realized I still wanted to teach and motivate Black and other POC women writers after nearly 15 years teaching in academia. So, I created The Reed, Write, & Create Sanctuary, a membership community for BIPoC women writers who take their writing seriously. After being a writer and author for over 20 years, and given the current political climate, I know women writers of the global majority are the ones who need the most protection and support. The ones who need community now more than ever. Creating The Sanctuary was done as an act of service, but it has been such a gift to me personally and as a writer. Never have I been more convinced that writers need community, not only to survive, but to thrive and persevere long-term.

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

Having my work appear in Callaloo means a lot to me a Black American writer. It feels like gaining entry into " the" club of Black America's greatest writers. And it also feels like being a part of Black literary history. It is truly an honor.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

I started writing when I was eight years old because my mother bought me an antique Remington Typewriter. I immediately fell in love with the idea of getting the stories in my head onto a blank page, and then sharing the stories with my family members. It was such a joy for me and I got a lot of positive feedback from my aunties, so I kept going. I can admit that I am a writer who loves writing, but I also love being read.

Is there anything else you would like readers to know about your work or about you?

My goal as a writer is to center the lives of African American people, whether it is in fiction or nonfiction. I am particularly interested in sharing stories that disrupt the false narratives and limited versions of Black authenticity. My career has mainly been built on writing nonfiction, but now I'm transitioning into fiction, but my objectives as a storyteller remain the same.

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." - Maya Angelou

Connect with Lori & Support her work:

@LoriLTharps on IG and Threads ReedWriteandCreate.com

Become a Callaloo Supporter

Founded in 1976, Callaloo has arguably been the most important and prestigious Black literary journal for the last 50 years. So many of the greatest literary voices of the late 20th and early 21st century have made their debuts or built their careers in the pages of Callaloo : Rita Dove, John Edgar Wideman, Natasha Tretheway, Percival Everett, Tracy K. Smith, Kevin Young, Carl Phillips, Yusef Komunyakaa, and the list goes on.

We're so grateful for your support as we move into our 50th anniversary year. Thank you for supporting literary and visual art from across the African diaspora. Your gift helps ensure that the journal will be strong for another 50 years! Donate to the Callaloo 5oth Anniversary Campaign to make an impact today.

Callaloo Community Feature: Schyler Butler

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:04:18 GMT

Callaloo Community Feature: Schyler Butler

Can you share about how your creative journey or background led you to Callaloo?

When I began writing professionally, I was encouraged to find Black literary journals. My mentor had been published in Callaloo years prior to our meeting, and of course, had a copy of the volume in which his work appeared. Holding that piece of history, knowing that within the well-loved cover was work written with the sole intention of engaging with African American and African Diaspora experiences, was everything. In my second year as a MFA Creative Writing student at The Ohio State University, I learned Callaloo was seeking readers and knew I'd be a fool not to apply. When the time is right, poems I've written will be printed within Callaloo , too.

Describe your experience being a reader for Callaloo:

Reading for Callaloo has been transformative. It’s clarified for me just how much power editors hold and why it’s essential to care deeply about excellence. So many people are writers, each at different stages of development, and while my first duty as a reader is to discern which submissions are strong enough for the Callaloo editors to consider for publication, it’s equally my duty to engage with each writer’s work as a beautiful, important offering, one worthy of gentle honesty.

What does being a part of Callaloo mean to you as a writer?

Being part of Callaloo means being in community with countless Black artists striving to create excellent work. It means joining and helping shape a legacy of triumph.

What inspired you to start writing in the first place?

Consciously, my love of reading. When I started gobbling up chapter books, I often thought, "Wow, this is amazing. I bet I can do this, too." Subconsciously, my mother, who loves reading; my biological father, who loves writing; and all my living family and ancestors who love and loved either / or.

Are there any upcoming projects or pieces you're working on that you'd like to share with our readers?

My debut poetry collection, Phantom Hue, is forthcoming from CavanKerry Press (Fall 2026)! It traces the inner life of a light-skinned Black woman reckoning with the inheritances of race, gender, history, and family. I am stupid excited. Silly excited. Externally, calm. This book is one of many gifts I will hand to the world.

Is there a quote that has guided you on your writing journey?

I don't remember where I found this—I am always writing notes wherever I can without context or attribution—but I have a bright pink sticky note with the words, "Put the work above all else, and trust the process." Writing is an act of faith. My journey meets the criteria tenfold.

Follow and Support Schyler’s Work

Instagram: @whistle_the_key

Website: schyler.journoportfolio.com

Interested in Becoming a Reader for Callaloo ?

Click here to learn more about becoming a reader for Callaloo.