Afro-American Studies professor Steven Tracy is a writer and editor of works about
African-American literature and culture, as well as an accomplished blues musician.
Steven is known for his comprehensive, highly technical, and thorough analysis of
Afro-American writers and musicians. 

A member of the Afro-American Studies department since 1995, Steven is the author and
editor of more than 30 books about Afro-American history, culture and music, including
“Langston Hughes and the Blues” (University of Illinois Press, 1988), “Going to
Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City” (University of Illinois Press,
1993), winner of Association for Recorded Sound Collections’ award for outstanding volume
on blues, jazz, or gospel music, and “A Brush with the Blues” (Rep House, 1997). Steven
received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Cincinnati Blues Society in
1996.

Articles

Without Respect to Gender, Foreign Literature Studies (2010)
 

Putting the Blue, Black, and Red in the Red, White, and Blue, Foreign Literature Studies (2008)

This paper will discuss the emergence of the blues into American literature, focusing on Langston...

 

Bert Williams, MELUS (2004)
 

Langston Hughes’s Works for Children and Young Adults, Langston Hughes Review (2002)

The twelfth volume of The Collected Works of Langston Hughes contains Hughes's collections of biographies...

 

The Single Career of Albert Washington, Juke Blues (2000)
 

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Books

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Langston Hughes and the Blues (2001)

Drawing on a deep understanding of the shades and structures of the blues, Steven C....

 

A Brush with the Blues (1997)
 

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Going to Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City (1993)
 

Langston Hughes and the Blues (1988)

Drawing on a deep understanding of the shades and structures of the blues, Steven C....

 

Contributions to Books

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The Hol-y-istic Blues of August Wilson, Completing the Twentieth-Century Cycle (2010)
 

Entry on Langston Hughes, Harlem Renaissance Lives (2009)
 

A Discography of Recordings Related to the Life and Work of Sterling Brown, After Winter (2008)
 

Richard Wright and Langston Hughes, The Richard Wright Encyclopedia (2008)
 

Thanks, Jack, for That, Thriving on a Riff (2008)
 

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Presentations and Conference Papers

Futuristic Jungleism, Ragmentation, and the Bluing of American Literature, International Conference on Literature in English (2011)
 

Sonny in the Dark, James Baldwin Conference (2009)
 

Blues, Jazz, Gospel, and Pop in James Baldwin's 'Sonny's Blues, Conference on African American Literature (2009)
 

Without Respect to Gender, Conference on Ethnic Politics and the Evolution of Modern Literature in English (2009)
 

“Big Boy’s Blues Fell This Morning, Richard Wright Conference (2008)
 

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