NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines

Callaloo

Publisher’s description: Callaloo, the premier journal of art, literature and culture of the African Diaspora, publishes original works by and critical studies of black writers worldwide. The journal offers a rich mixture of fiction, poetry, plays, critical essays, cultural studies, interviews, photography, and visual art. Frequent annotated bibliographies, special thematic issues, and original art and photography are some of the features of this highly acclaimed international showcase of arts and letters. Special issues on the Confederate flag, Haiti and on Puerto Rican Women Writers have received recognition from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, and the Association of American Publishers Professional Scholarly Publishing Division.

“Callaloo is a bubbling dish of what is lively, scholarly, serious, and imaginative. It has become a staple food for American literary thought.” - John Hollander, Yale University

"Callaloo...is no less than a Mother Lode of outstanding Afro-American arts and letters." - Alex Haley

"Without Callaloo the entire landscape of American letters would be immensely impoverished. What higher praise can a journal earn?"
-Ken Wissoker, Editor-in-Chief, Duke University Press 

Recent issues:

Summer 2008, Volume 31, Number 3 : Devoted to Rita Dove, American Poet, this special issue contains thirteen new poems by the former U.S. Poet Laureate which will appear in Rita's forthcoming collection, Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements & A Short Play. In addition, the issue features four essays by Rita, a two-part interview with Rita conducted by the Editor, a selective bibliography, Chinese translations of two of Rita's poems, several essays which examine Rita's works and a score of photographs chronicling Rita's journey through life. The issue also contains a new poem by Nathaniel Mackey, and new fiction and book reviews, including Princeton University professor Albert Jordy Raboteau's review of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

Fall 2008, Volume 31, Number 4: Guest Edited by Michael Collins and titled "Cutting Down 'The Wrath-Bearing Tree'", The Politics Issue examines politics throughout the African Diaspora, including Barack Obama's history-making ascension to the Presidency of the United States of America. This issue features poetry by Derek Walcott, Angela Jackson, and Fred D'Aguiar, fiction by Bernardine Evaristo, drama by Jessica Hagedorn, essays by Jagdish Bhagwati, Thomas Glave, David A. Hollinger and Julie L. McGee, art by David C. Driskell and interviews with Ambassadors Munir Akram and Byron Blake. In addition, an In Memoriam section celebrates the life and mourns the passing of one of Negritude's founders, Aime Cesaire.