Office: 430 EPB Phone: 319-335-0445 E-mail: michael-hill@uiowa.edu Curriculum Vitae Courses

Michael Hill

Post-WWII African American literature

My research focuses on post-WWII African American literature. I have analyzed Civil Rights Novels in writing about Frank London Brown, William Demby, and Ralph Ellison. Moving to the end of the twentieth century, my first book, Fictions for the New Depression, will examine black literary culture from 1980 to 1993, a period I call "The Reagan Era." Despite widespread black antipathy toward many of his policies, Ronald Reagan's presidency, along with that of his vice-president, George H. W. Bush, intersects with one of the most distinguished periods in African American literary history. David Bradley, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson, and John Edgar Wideman all receive major literary prizes, and they solidify their status as mature writers. Exploring issues like welfare, the prison industrial complex, and substance abuse, this book will consider how black novelist's structural and thematic preoccupations constitute an intriguing response to late twentieth century American life. It also will look at the politics of literary prizes and the rich interplay between literature, film, and music.