Black Male Writers for Our Time
The New York Times honored the work of faculty member Phillip B. Williams and Poetry at Bennington and Bennington Review writers Jericho Brown, Shane McCrae, Kevin Young, and Reginald McKnight in its feature on 32 American men who "are producing literature that is essential to how we understand our country and its place in the world right now."
From the article:
"I wonder if, in the annals of history, this extraordinary period of artistry will find a name, or a unifying sentiment that codifies it as a movement. Perhaps, or perhaps not. For now, we can rejoice in the gifted writers whom we are privileged to read. And we must be vigilant. We must pay keen attention to who’s in the moment and who’s left out, and why. A host of writers wait in the wings. It’ll be their moment soon. Let it be wide open. Let it be without limits. Let it be as broad as they have the talent to make it."
To read the work by these men is to have an urgent encounter with a vital and thriving consciousness.
Ayana Mathis, The New York Times