Ted Mason On Air

GAMBIER, Ohio (August 9, 2007) Ted Mason, a professor of English and an expert in African American literature, joined a National Public Radio broadcast August 2 to help launch a month-long literature series called "Inside the Black Literary Imagination" on the program News & Notes. Mason joined program host Audie Cornish and Jerry Ward Jr., professor of English and African American World Studies at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In discussing antebellum African American writing, Mason said, "Literature becomes a way of not only achieving political ends but has another aim: 'I, as a writer, am just as much a human as anyone else.'" When asked about current trends in African American literature, Mason mentioned that black writers have moved into many genres, "even romance fiction," and the black community includes "multiple markets."

The program can be heard via this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12447450