Louis J. Parascandola
Louis J. Parascandola holds a Ph.D. in English from the City University Graduate School. He is an Associate Professor of English where he teaches courses in Honors English, sophomore literature, Black literatures, and 19th Century British literature. His research interests include literatures of the African diaspora (especially the Anglophone Caribbean), the Harlem Renaissance, 19th century nautical literature, the literature of empire, and Italian American culture. He is the coordinator of the successful literary series, Voices of the Rainbow, which has featured many culturally and diverse authors including Piri Thomas, Edwidge Danticat, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Junot Diaz, Cristina Garcia, Martin Espada, Elizabeth Nunez, and Maryse Conde.
Publications
"Look for Me All Around You": Anglophone Caribbean Immigrants in the Harlem Renaissance (Wayne State University Press, forthcoming 2005) An edition with a critical introduction and notes on 15 literary and political writers including Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, Amy Jacques Garvey, Eric Walrond, Eulalie Spence, Cyril Briggs, and Arturo Schomburg.
"Cyril Briggs and the African Blood Brotherhood" Afro-Americans in New York Life and History (forthcoming 2006) Essay on Briggs, a native of Nevis, and his involvement in the radical political movement the African Blood Brotherhood in the 1920s.
"In Search of Asylum: Eric Walrond's Roundway Review Writings, 1952-1957" Journal of Caribbean Studies 19.1-2 (2004-2005): 21-42. With Carl Wade. Essay on little known writings by Walrond, a native of British Guiana, while living in England.
Editions of Captain Frederick Marryat's novels, Peter Simple, Mr. Midshipman Easy, Percival Keene (Henry Holt, 1998-1999)
"Winds Can Wake up the Dead": An Eric Walrond Reader (Wayne State University Press, 1998). An edition of the literary and journalistic writings of Walrond, a Harlem Renaissance figure who lived at various times in British Guiana, Barbados, Panama, the U.S., and England.
"Puzzled Which to Choose": Conflicting Socio-Political Views in the Works of Captain Frederick Marryat (Peter Lang, 1997). Critical work on the writings of this early Victorian sea novelist.