Joycelyn K. Moody is Sue E. Denman Distinguished Chair of American Literature and Professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her scholarship includes Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives of Nineteenth-Century African American Women, Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge (2001), and numerous essays on African American literature and feminism. She is Series Editor of African American Literature in Transition (Cambridge) and Co-Editor of the book series Regenerations: African American Literature and Culture.

'Readers looking for one book illuminating the range and value of African American life writings will find Moody's book ideal. This collection demonstrates that critical race theory matters now more than ever. … Essential.' F. L. Gardaphe, CHOICE

• 1. Introduction Joycelyn K. Moody; Part I. Origins and Histories: 2. Black life writing and print culture before 1800 Rhondda Robinson Thomas; 3. Reading the edited 'I' Eric D. Lamore; 4. An overview of nineteenth-century slavery narratives William L. Andrews; 5. 19th-century autobiographical writings by freeborn African Americans John Ernest; 6. African American life writing, 1865-1900 Andreá N. Williams; 7. Black life writing in print cultures at the turn into the twentieth century Lois Brown; 8. New negro autobiographies Cherene Sherrard Johnson; 9. Transnational and postcolonial Afro-Caribbean life writings Nicole Aljoe; 10. Writing race and remembrance in the Civil Rights Movement years Brian J. Norman; 11. The biomedicalization of black life narratives Moya Bailey and Whitney Peoples; Part II. Individuals and Communities: 12. Spiritual autobiography, past and present Cedrick May; 13. Life writings of contemporary African American women Barbara McCaskill; 14. The Autobiography of Malcolm X James Smethurst; 15. Black queer life writing Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman; 16. Black celebrity auto/biographies Anthony Foy; 17. Mixed race autobiographical narratives Caroline Streeter; 18. Black biography and the complexities of telling another's life Tara D. Green; 19. Black lives in persona poems Howard Rambsy II; 20. Depicting African American life in graphics and visual cultures Michael Chaney; 21. Life writing for Black children and youth Giselle Anatol; 22. Telling African American lives in literature for young readers Jonda McNair; 23. Can cups be books? Frances Smith Foster.