As a quarterly journal, AAR promotes a lively exchange among writers and scholars in the arts and humanities who hold diverse perspectives on African American literature, art, and culture.
Between 1967 and 1976, the journal appeared under the title Negro American Literature Forum, and for the next fifteen years was titled Black American Literature Forum. It became African American Review in 1992 and expanded its mission to include the study of a broader array of cultural formations. Currently, the journal prints essays on African American literature, theatre, film, the visual arts, and culture; interviews; poetry; fiction; and book reviews.
AAR has received the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) Award for Best Special Issue, the CELJ Award for Distinguished Editor, and three American Literary Magazine Awards for Editorial Content. The journal has also received grants from the National Endowment for Arts, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.
Contributors include renowned cultural critics such as Houston A. Baker, Jr., Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Trudier Harris, Arnold Rampersad, and Hortense Spillers; prominent writers such as Amiri Baraka, Nathaniel Mackey, Marilyn Nelson, Cyrus Cassells, Rita Dove, Charles Johnson, Toni Morrison, and Ishmael Reed. A recent reviewer remarked that "what makes AAR stand out isn't race but heritage. Its rich mixture of texture and tone is a welcome antidote to the cultural amnesia that prevails in [many] magazines...."
Editor Nathan L. Grant
Managing Editor Aileen M. Keenan
Associate Editors
Houston A. Baker, Jr.
Keith Byerman
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Member Advisors
| William L. Andrews | Karla F. C. Holloway |
| Michael Awkward | Dolan Hubbard |
| Herman Beavers | Abdul JanMohamed |
| Bernard W. Bell | Ketu Katrak |
| Camille Billops | David Krasner |
| Joanne M. Braxton | Missy D. Kubitschek |
| Robert James Butler | Edward Margolies |
| John F. Callahan | Deborah E. McDowell |
| James Coleman | Reginald McKnight |
| Wanda Coleman | E. Ethelbert Miller |
| Daryl Dance | R. Baxter Miller |
| Thadious M. Davis | Joycelyn Moody |
| Alice Deck | Sterling Plumpp |
| Manthia Diawara | Sw. Anand Prahlad |
| Michele Elam | Arnold Rampersad |
| Frances Smith Foster | Sandra Richards | Robert E. Fox | Valerie A. Smith |
| Donald B. Gibson | Miriam Thaggert |
| William Gleason | Cheryl A. Wall |
| Farah Jasmine Griffin | Jerry W. Ward, Jr. |
| William J. Harris | Joe Weixlmann |
| James V. Hatch | Richard Yarborough |
African American Review
Saint Louis University
Adorjan Hall 317
3800 Lindell Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63108
If you have questions about this page or its contents, contact the webmaster.