Duke University English Department

A new chapter begins for Left of Black! 🎥

Award-winning scholar Christopher Ouma takes the helm of the acclaimed series, bringing a global, Pan-African perspective to conversations on Black thought, culture, and the humanities.

Since original host Mark Anthony Neal launched the series in 2011, Left of Black has become a leading platform for conversations with scholars, artists, writers, and public intellectuals shaping the field.

Ouma's appointment marks an exciting new chapter that builds on that legacy while broadening the series' international reach.

Read more: https://fhi.duke.edu/news/christopher-ouma-takes-helm-award-winning-series-left-black/

Congratulations to Professor Ouma the new host of the Webby Awards-nominated web series “Left of Black.”

Revolutionary Reading: Trinity Faculty Books for America’s 250th The American Revolution was not a sudden moment but the result of decades of political debate, economic change and intellectual exchange that stretched across the Atlantic world. And while the signing of the Declaration of Independence marked a historic turning point, it also ushered in a period of....

Thank you Aarthi Vadde of @duke_english for stoping by the shop and signing a copy of We The Platform: How the Internet Changed Twenty-First Century Literature! We the Platform is a groundbreaking account of mass writing in the twenty-first century, identifying rarely recognized forms of literary possibility amid the profound upheavals in traditional publishing. Aarthi Vadde examines the explosion of textuality across digital platforms: countless writers, diverse publishing formats, and vast communities of readers responding to stories publicly and instantly. Countering ubiquitous decline narratives, she offers powerful examples of literary innovation, adaptation, and survival. Among them are Jonathan Lethem and Lauren Oyler’s challenges to individualist ideas of authorship, the Twitter fiction of Jennifer Egan and Teju Cole, Margaret Atwood and Naomi Alderman’s collaborative writing on Wattpad, conceptual projects like Book from the Ground, and the experimental use of chatbots by authors including Sheila Heti. Through nuanced and illuminating readings, this book shows how platform-based writing has altered cornerstone concepts of authorship, aesthetic form, and craft, delivering a bold new understanding of literature now. Her signed copy is available now at The Regulator Bookshop! #supportlocalauthors #regulatorbookshop #durhamnc #bullcity #ninthstreet

What Happens When Everyone Can Be a Writer? Aarthi Vadde’s New Book Asks Just That Aarthi Vadde, E.

Trinity College Honors Four Staff Members with Dean’s Pillar of Excellence Awards The 2026 awards honor individuals who consistently demonstrate outstanding service, leadership, initiative, community, collaboration, enthusiasm and inclusion.

Big Questions, Bold Research: Trinity Honors 2026 Distinguished Dissertation Award Recipients Now in its second cohort, the award honors three members of Trinity's graduating Ph.D. class who demonstrated remarkable outstanding scholarship and academic excellence.

Trinity in Four Acts: Daniella Freedman Sophomore year is when things start to click, and the unknowns become the familiar. Classes feel more purposeful, friendships run deeper, routines develop and campus becomes home. As our four Trinity students return, the series picks back up to follow their next chapter focused on exploring new oppo...

Professor Jaji will give the Annual Juneteenth Lecture!

Marking Juneteenth as the arrival of freedom in isolated spaces, Professor Jaji traces collaborations between Black poets and concert musicians - from the Jubilee Singers to contemporary Grammy-nominated works - showing how art preserves the history of enslavement in collective memory. The event concludes with a communal singing of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing. 🔔 Save the date and register now for our Juneteenth Lecture 2026! 🗓June 18, 2026 🕕18:00–19:30 📍Festsaal, Universität Bonn, Am Hof 1, 53113 Bonn For more information and registration, visit: https://buff.ly/jjbnMEH @nas.bonn @universitaetbonn @dfg__public

Are you an undergraduate who enjoys creative writing? You could win an award for your talents!

The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award

The Rosati Creative Writing Prize is awarded each spring in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing. All Duke first year or sophomore students are eligible to submit work for consideration. Projects may be any genre and take any form (audio/video, digital media, etc.), but must include a substantial creative writing component.

Deadline: June 15th, 2026

Prize: $1500

For more details: https://library.duke.edu/research/awards/rosati

The William Styron Creative Writing Award

The Styron Creative Writing Prize is awarded each spring in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing. All Duke juniors and seniors are eligible to submit work for consideration. Projects may be any genre and take any form (audio/video, digital media, etc.), but must include a substantial creative writing component.

Deadline: June 15th, 2026

Prize: $1500

For more details: https://library.duke.edu/research/awards/styron

Eligibility for both awards:

You must be a Duke first year or sophomore student (or just finished that year). Duke juniors and seniors may apply for the William Styron Creative Writing Award.
You may submit no more than three different projects in a given year. Each project should be submitted individually with an accompanying application.
Submitted projects must have been written during the current academic year
At this time submissions must be written in English
No minimum length. No more than 50 pages for each submission can be submitted. The total work can be longer, but in that case only submit a carefully selected sample.

Contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Librarian for Literature, at [email protected], if you have questions.