William J. Maxwell

William J. Maxwell is Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he has taught modern American and African American literatures since 2009. He is the author of the books "F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature" (Princeton University Press, 2015), which won an American Book Award in 2016, and "New Negro, Old Left: African American Writing and Communism between the Wars" (Columbia University Press, 1999). He is the editor of the collection "James Baldwin: The FBI File" (Arcade, 2017); of Claude McKay’s "Complete Poems" (University of Illinois Press, 2004); and, along with Gary E. Holcomb, of McKay’s previously unpublished novel "Romance in Marseille" (Penguin Classics, 2020). His more than sixty essays and reviews have appeared in dozens of academic and popular journals including "African American Review," "The American Historical Review," "American Literary History," "American Literature," "Callaloo," "Harper’s," "The Irish Times," "The Journal of American History," "Modernism/modernity," "Politico," "Publishers Weekly," "Salon," and the London "Times Literary Supplement." Maxwell is the First Vice President of the international Modernist Studies Association (MSA) and has served on the Modern Language Association (MLA) divisional committees on both black American and twentieth-century American literatures. A former book review editor of "African American Review" and member of the editorial board of "American Literature," he is now a contributing editor at "American Literary History" and "James Baldwin Review."