By Justin A. Joyce and Douglas Field
James Baldwin Review is proud to announce the publication of its inaugural volume. James Baldwin Review (JBR) is an annual, peer-reviewed journal that brings together a wide array of critical and creative work on the life, writings, and legacy of a groundbreaking 20th century American author, James Baldwin. Extending discussion of Baldwin’s writing and its impacts beyond academia is one of the core aims of JBR. Towards this end, the journal is published online, available for free, in an open access partnership between Northwestern University, Manchester University Press, and the University of Manchester Library.
Although
James Baldwin's work has started to receive considerable scholarly attention, and
though he is cited widely on the Internet in epigraphic and aphoristic ways, his
legacy has been far from secure. While there are smatterings of his archive at
the Schomburg Center for Black Research and Culture in New York City, for
example, the collection is less significant than his peers, including that of
Richard Wright, an African American writer with whom he is frequently compared.
Spurred on by two important collections of essays on Baldwin's work—D. Quentin
Miller's 1999 volume, Re-Viewing James Baldwin: Things Not Seen, and
Dwight McBride's collection of essays, James Baldwin Now, published a
year later—Baldwin scholars began to discuss in earnest ways how we might build
on this important work, while also helping to cement the author's place as a
central figure in 20th century American culture. JBR sprang out of a perceived need to
create an established forum for the exciting new scholarship that focused on the
author, as well as encouraging participants at international conferences on
Baldwin to develop their ideas (London 2007; Boston 2009; Montpellier, 2014; and
Paris, 2016), in well-written, jargon-free prose that might appeal to non-academics,
too. The aim of the journal, which carries echoes of The Henry James Review (Johns Hopkins University Press),
one of Baldwin's literary heroes, is to gather together new and established
critical writers in order to continue and develop the important scholarly work of previous generations, but also to look
afresh at his less well-known work and to reassess his continuing political and
cultural relevance.
It
was determined from the outset that the journal would be a collaborative
project; that it would involve a number of scholars and artists in order to
reflect the multi-faceted nature of Baldwin's life and work. Approximately six
years ago, Doug Field, a noted Baldwin scholar whose new book All Those Strangers: The Art and Lives of
James Baldwin is fresh out from Oxford University Press, formed a
partnership with Dwight A. McBride and Justin A. Joyce, both with The Graduate
School at Northwestern University. After nearly two years exploring different
revenue models for founding and funding a journal, it became clear that with
funding from our respective institutions (University of Manchester and
Northwestern University), we could create our own model, thanks to the pioneering
approach to Open Access publishing both at the University of Manchester Library
and also at Manchester University Press.
The Open Access model was not only a financially viable model, it’s more
egalitarian ethos also fit well with the spirit of Baldwin's work, which
continues to demand attention, not only from the Academy, but from a wide cross-section
of society across the globe, which is a fitting tribute to this self-styled
transatlantic commuter.
We
are very proud to be able to announce our journal in conjunction with Open
Access Week, and to join the global community of scientists, researchers, and
scholars who are working to limit the barriers of access to knowledge by
publishing in Open Access forums and repositories. Publishing our journal under
a Creative Commons open access license allows Baldwin scholars, students, and
enthusiasts an accessible forum for sustaining interest in the life, works, and
legacies of this vital 20th century American writer.
For
a humanities journal, and specifically one concentrating on such a prophetic
and inspiring voice, our aim is perhaps slightly different than the core of
scientific journals utilizing Open Access to spread "knowledge". Opening
the doors of access to current research can also touch us in profoundly
emotional ways. As Baldwin himself once wrote, “You think your pain and your
heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It
was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very
things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever
been alive.” As Baldwin scholars, our push is to make as widely available as
possible the voices, views, and lives that move us, to empathy, to understanding,
to new ideas about ourselves, each other, and our places in the world. Words
that move us, in short, to action.
The inaugural volume of JBR
contains a mix of formal and informal tones, of experienced writers and new
voices. These essays are accompanied by an award-winning graduate student
essay, journalistic and autobiographical reflections, and a review of significant
scholarly works on Baldwin. Our first volume also proudly features new words
and new works to examine and explore, including an interview with Baldwin that
has not previously been published in English and an essay on “The Hallelujah
Chorus,” Baldwin’s largely forgotten collaboration with Ray Charles. Volume 1
also contains extended discussions of the importance of music to Baldwin’s life
and work, along with instrumental and vocal performances on the JBR website.
Volume
1 (2015) of JBR can
be found here:
JBR is currently accepting
submissions for its second volume (2016). The call for papers and information
about submissions can be found on our website:
