I’m a scholar of working-class writing, a literary historian of the Midwest, and a theorist of American radicalism. I try to synthesize these commitments in my research and teaching. I’m based in Chicago, where I serve as Assistant Professor of English at Saint Xavier University. You can learn all about my work on this webpage. Thanks for stopping by!
You’ll find samples of my writing and organizing work below. –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.
