Callaloo, A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, is a quarterly literary magazine established in 1976 by Charles H. Rowell, who remains its editor-in-chief. It contains creative writing, visual art, and critical texts about literature and culture of the African diaspora, and is the longest continuously running African-American literary magazine.

Notable writers published in Callaloo include Ernest Gaines, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Octavia Butler, Alice Walker, Lucille Clifton, Edwidge Danticat, Thomas Glave, Samuel Delany, and John Edgar Wideman. Callaloo is well known for connecting Black artists from different cultures and sponsoring upcoming writers.

History

Charles H. Rowell initially conceived the idea for Callaloo in 1974 out of necessity for a Black South forum. Rowell was first inspired to create a Black South forum when writing an article on a recent interview he had with Sterling Brown, a poet and critic at Howard University. Rowell was impressed by all that Brown had done to preserve, promote, and celebrate African-American culture and literature. Wanting to further advance the sphere of African-American literature, particularly in the South, Rowell sought to create an independent venue for Black writers in the South. In the wake of the Black Arts Movement, which according to Rowell pushed a narrow political ideology associated with northern urban communities, there was a severe lack of Black Southern literature. In addition, the presence of systemic discrimination against Black people in the South created a barrier from Black writers works being published. Rowell sought to fix this by creating a "Black South forum" to allow Black writers in the South to have their voices heard. With the help of colleagues, students, and fundraising at Southern University, Callaloo's first issue was published in 1976 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a Black South literacy forum. In its early years, Callaloo included short stories from Rita Dove, a novel by Nathaniel Mackey, and poetry by Melvin Dixon, Brenda Marie Osbey, Gerald Barrax, and Jay Wright. In 1986, Charles Rowell moved to the University of Virginia, which is when Johns Hopkins University began publishing the magazine. At the University of Virginia, Rowell and his staff sought to extend readership not only nationally, but also internationally. Callaloo was no longer just for Black writers in the South; it evolved into its own epicenter to promote Black voices and culture across the African diaspora. In order to accomplish this task, Rowell and his staff traveled to various Universities and libraries to hold international readings and workshops to bring together writers and artists from various backgrounds across the African diaspora. According to Rowell, these initiatives proved successful, and after his move to Texas A&M University, Rowell and his team continued to receive ample support from the university to sponsor workshops and competitions to bring black artists together from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. Through writing competitions, developing writers and their potential were recognized; as a result, many upcoming writers were sponsored by the university, and received help with their first publications, some of which were even included in Callaloo, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. As a result, Callaloo, over its history, has published various special issues about Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, Surinam, and Mexico. Prominent writers from these areas have also been published, including Maryse Condé, Nicolas Guillén, Derek Walcott, and Nancy Morejón. The journal has also represented many languages from the Caribbean, and South and Central America, including English, Spanish, French, Haitian Kreyol, Portuguese, and Dutch. Callaloo, to Rowell and his supporters, represents the spirit of Black aesthetics. Margo Natalie Crawford describes the aesthetic in Callaloo as "the power of becoming", which has done a great deal to change conceptions about the Black aesthetics following the Black Arts Movement.

According to Scopus, Callaloo has a 2018 CiteScore of 0.04, ranking 479/736 in the category "Literature and Literary Theory".

See also

  • List of literary magazines
  • African-American literature
  • African-American culture

References

  • Callaloo on the Johns Hopkins University Press website
  • Callaloo at Project MUSE
  • Callaloo at JSTOR