Paule Marshall (b. 1929) is a major contributor to the canons of African American and Caribbean American literature. In 1959, she published her first novel, "Brown Girl, Brownstones," and was quickly recognized as a writer of great talent and insight on important questions about gender, race, and immigration in American society. In 1981, the Feminist Press rediscovered her novel and reprinted it, earning Marshall the informal title of grandmother of the renaissance of African American women's writing that emerged in the early 1970s. Over the course of her fifty-year career, Marshall has published five novels, two collections of short stories, numerous essays, and a memoir. In recognition of her work, she has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and, in 1992, the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.

"Conversations with Paule Marshall" is the first collection of her interviews, and as such it provides the first comprehensive account of the stages of this writer's life. The most recent conversation took place in 2009 following the publication of her memoir, "Triangular Road"; the oldest takes readers back to 1971, just after the publication of her second novel, "The Chosen Place, the Timeless People." In this collection of interviews, Marshall discusses the sources of her writing, her involvement in the civil rights movement, her understanding of the relationship between art and politics (as framed, in part, by her discussions with Maya Angelou and Malcolm X), and her evolving understanding of the relationship between the wide wings of the African diaspora.

Until the late twentieth century, relatively few Americans knew that the United States government forcibly detained nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. At war's end, the nation, including many of those who were confined to the ten Relocation Centers-which President Roosevelt initially referred to as "concentration camps"-wished to wipe this national tragedy from memory. That Damned Fence, titled after a poem written by a Japanese American held at the Minidoka camp in Idaho, draws on the creative work of the internees themselves to cast new light on this historical injustice. While in captivity, detainees produced moving poetry and fiction, compelling investigative journalism, and lasting work of arts to make sense of their hardships and to leave a record of their emotional and psychological suffering. Heather Hathaway explores the experiences of inmates in five camps-Topaz in Utah; Granada/Amache in Colorado; Rohwer and Jerome in Arkansas; and Tule Lake in northern California-each with their own literary magazines, such as TREK, All Aboard, Pulse, The Pen, Magnet, and The Tulean Dispatch. Conditions in the camps varied dramatically, as did their environments, ranging from sweltering swamplands and sun-blasted desert to frigid mountain terrain. So too did the inhabitants of each camp, with some dominated by farmers from California's Central Valley and others filled with professionals from the San Francisco Bay area. This disparity extended to the attitudes of camp administrators; some deemed the plan a mistake from the outset while others believed their captives to be a significant threat to national security. That Damned Fence reveals the anger and humor, and the deep despair and steadfast resilience with which Japanese Americans faced their wartime incarceration. By emphasizing the inner lives of the unjustly accused and the myriad ways in which they portrayed their captivity, Heather Hathaway gives voice to Americans imprisoned by their own country for their country of origin or appearance.

Definitions of modernism have been debated throughout the twentieth century. But both during the height of the modernist era and since, little to no consideration has been given to the work of minority writers as part of this movement. Considering works by writers ranging from B.A. Botkin, T.S. Eliot, Waldo Frank, and Jean Toomer to Pedro Pietri and Allen Ginsberg, these essays examine the disputed relationship between modernity, modernism, and American cultural diversity. In so doing, the collection as a whole adds an important new dimension to our understanding of twentieth-century literature.

Paule Marshall (b. 1929) is a major contributor to the canons of African American and Caribbean American literature. In 1959, she published her first novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones, and was quickly recognized as a writer of great talent and insight on important questions about gender, race, and immigration in American society. In 1981, the Feminist Press rediscovered her novel and reprinted it, earning Marshall the informal title of leader of the renaissance of African American women's writing that emerged in the early 1970s. Over the course of her fifty-year career, Marshall has published five novels, two collections of short stories, numerous essays, and a memoir. In recognition of her work, she has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and, in 1992, the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Conversations with Paule Marshall is the first collection of her interviews, and as such it provides the first comprehensive account of the stages of this writer's life. The most recent conversation took place in 2009 following the publication of her memoir, Triangular Road; the oldest takes readers back to 1971, just after the publication of her second novel, The Chosen Place, the Timeless People. In this collection of interviews, Marshall discusses the sources of her writing, her involvement in the civil rights movement, her understanding of the relationship between art and politics (as framed, in part, by her discussions with Maya Angelou and Malcolm X), and her evolving understanding of the relationship between the wide wings of the African diaspora.