I write and teach about the cultural history of social movements. How revolutionaries of the past produced and published their texts reveals much about politics, race, and literature in America. Currently, I am postdoctoral fellow in English at Washington University in St. Louis, where I earned my Ph.D.
You’ll find samples of my writing and organizing work below. Thank you for stopping by. –MB
Argues that self-publishing enabled Black authors to find new, racially integrated readerships for politically and stylistically radical writing at the turn of the twentieth century. Read here.
“Pioneers and Populists: Sutton E. Griggs, Oscar Micheaux, and Independent Black Publishing at the Turn of the Century.” College Literature vol. 51, no. 4, fall 2024, pp. 587-615.
Printed out of a cattle barn in Minnesota, Anvil published some of the biggest leftist writers of the 1930s, including Richard Wright and Langston Hughes. Its popular vision for a multiracial socialism in the heart of the US could hardly be more urgent today. Read it here.
