Research & Innovation

Sunny tries to shine despite his troubled past in this third novel in the critically acclaimed Track series from National Book Award finalist Jason Reynolds.

Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics. They all have a lot of lose, but they all have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Sunny is the main character in this novel, the third of four books in Jason Reynold’s electrifying middle grade series.

Sunny is just that—sunny. Always ready with a goofy smile and something nice to say, Sunny is the chillest dude on the Defenders team. But Sunny’s life hasn’t always been sun beamy-bright. You see, Sunny is a murderer. Or at least he thinks of himself that way. His mother died giving birth to him, and based on how Sunny’s dad treats him—ignoring him, making Sunny call him Darryl, never “Dad”—it’s no wonder Sunny thinks he’s to blame. It seems the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad’s eyes is win first place ribbons running the mile, just like his mom did. But Sunny doesn’t like running, never has. So he stops. Right in the middle of a race.

With his relationship with his dad now worse than ever, the last thing Sunny wants to do is leave the other newbies—his only friends—behind. But you can’t be on a track team and not run. So Coach asks Sunny what he wants to do. Sunny’s answer? Dance. Yes, dance. But you also can’t be on a track team and dance. Then, in a stroke of genius only Jason Reynolds can conceive, Sunny discovers a track event that encompasses the hard hits of hip-hop, the precision of ballet, and the showmanship of dance as a whole: the discus throw. As Sunny practices the discus, learning when to let go at just the right time, he’ll let go of everything that’s been eating him up inside, perhaps just in time.

Mystery is not often discussed—apart from the genre—because, as Maud Casey says, “It’s not easy to talk about something that is a whispered invitation, a siren song, a flickering light in the distance.” Casey, the author of several critically acclaimed novels, reaches beyond the usual tool kit of fictional elements to ask the question: Where does mystery reside in a work of fiction?

We have begun to ask questions about how digital video assignments enhance the student's composition process. Results from this study and the collected data—including students' brainstorming activities, interactions, script writings and revisions, reflections, and feedback—will hopefully initiate a community of inquiry and discussion/reflections about curriculum design and encourage important adjustments based on students’ feedback and progress.

n this interview, Shirley Wilson Logan reflects on her major roles as a scholar, teacher, and an administrator. She describes her journey as chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, only one of a few black women to do so. Logan is also credited with launching the study of African American women’s rhetoric as a field, writing one of the early books on African American women rhetors. Logan discusses her motivations for writing this book, With Pen and Voice: A Critical Anthology of Nineteenth-Century African American Women, and makes connections between her scholarly focus and her work as both a teacher and an administrator.

Drawing on a depth of archival materials as well as recordings, films, commercials, and images, Flory explores the relationship between Motown and African American culture during the postwar period. Recently, I. Augustus Durham (Duke) spoke with Flory over Skype, discussing the way music comes to be categorized along racial lines, the relationship of soul music to the ascendant black middle class, and the enduring legacy of Motown.

The Gabbro Head Press has produced an anthology of essays written in tribute to the inspiration and influence of the renowned Tolkien scholar, writer, and professor, Verlyn Flieger. Entitled A Wilderness of Dragons: Essays in Honor of Verlyn Flieger, this volume was edited by the eminent Tolkien scholar John D. Rateliff, author of The History of the Hobbit.

The poems of this collection explore such everyday dualities—how the human need for attachment is as much a source of pain as of vitality and how our longing for transcendence often leads to sinister complicities.

Using newspaper accounts and court records from the late 19th and early 20th century, poet Joelle Biele follows three women who left their homes and families to start new lives or to find work. In the process she shares their stories about life on the roads and rails.

Tramp is composed of rich, unusual poems containing quotes from interviews, letters, and printed articles. Intermittently, pages are headlined “Dictionary,” explaining terms in use at the time, and “Newsbreaks,” which are assembled quotes from newspapers.

I grew up in communist Poland, and I knew few people who didn’t dream of leaving. I was one of them, and I emigrated as soon as the ban on traveling to the West was lifted. The place we all wanted to live was the United States of America, the greatest country in the world. There were many reasons why America was the best, and after living here for a quarter of a century, I still remember some of them.

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He situates the book in relation to a history of growing literary experimentation with pronouns, and the consequent rise in critical and especially narratological attention to pronouns. Richardson draws out patterns across the chapters, noting particularly the interesting frequency of focus on significant text-internal shifts in pronoun use and related issues of voice and perspective. This is but one of several avenues for further research arising from the chapters and noted by Richardson; others include the surprising new insights on uses of I, autofictionality, and unnatural narratology. His contribution rounds up the collection with a keen critical eye, helpfully highlighting of the book’s key advancements to knowledge, and suggesting where study of this area could go next.