James Baldwin Review, the preeminent peer-reviewed journal dedicated to Baldwin’s life and legacy, has won the award for Best Special Issue of 2025 from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
Co-published by Washington University in St. Louis and Manchester University Press, the review is edited by its three co-founders: Dwight A. McBride, the Gerald Early Distinguished Professor of African American Studies and a professor of English in Arts & Sciences; Justin A. Joyce, senior publications editor in the Department of African and African American Studies in Arts & Sciences; and Douglas Field, a professor of American literature at the University of Manchester in the U.K.
The review was recognized for its double-sized 10th anniversary volume, which also marked the 100th anniversary of Baldwin’s birth. William J. Maxwell, the Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Arts & Sciences, contributed a feature essay on Baldwin and Susan Sontag. Other highlights include, for the first time in print, two speeches and a radio interview that Baldwin presented on a single day in 1963; an interview with Cornell West; and eulogies and remembrances by Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka and Toni Morrison.
“Expertly edited, this nearly 400-page issue comprises excellent scholarship relating to the continuing importance of Baldwin today as well as to his reception in his own time, which will prove generative for scholarship and creative work to come,” the judges wrote.
James Baldwin Review is published online in an open-access partnership between WashU, Manchester University Press and the University of Manchester Library. Print copies also can be purchased. For more information, visit manchesterhive.com.
