Dr. Keith Eldon Byerman is a Professor of English and Women's Studies at Indiana State University. He is also an Associate Editor for the African American Review. He has published numerous books and articles including The Short Fiction of John Edgar Wideman (1998) and Seizing the Word: History, Art, and Self in the Work of W.E.B. DuBois (1994). He is currently editing a collection of essays entitled Reflections: Critical Essays on Carson McCullers and working on his next book, "True and Ancient Properties": History in Contemporary African-American Narrative. Dr. Byerman received his Ph.D. in American Studies/English from Purdue University in 1978.

Angela Hilton is a first-year doctoral student in American Studies/English at Purdue. A native of Chicago, Angela completed her B.A. in American Studies at Stanford University in 1992. Before beginning graduate work at Purdue, she worked as an administrator for a youth employment program, a purchasing agent for an educational materials company and a 4th grade teacher in Long Beach, California. She completed her M.A. in American Studies/English in 1998.

Portia Boulware is a third-year doctoral student in American Studies/English at Purdue. She earned her B.A. in English from Oberlin College in 1990 and her M.A. in English from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1995. In addition to her academic pursuits, Portia has worked as a high school English teacher in Greensboro, North Carolina and an English Composition Instructor at Purdue.

Furaha Norton is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at Cornell University. She completed her B.A. in English at the University of Chicago in 1993 and her M.A. in Literature from Cornell University in 1997. Furaha expects to complete her dissertation next year on the works of Toni Morrison entitled, "Toni Morrison and the Politics of Identity."