The scary Mason-Dixon Line: African American writers and the South

Southern black writers no matter where they are born

Such a frightening musical form: James Baldwin's "Blues for Mister Charlie" (1964)

Fear of manhood in the wake of systemic racism in Ernest J. Gaines's "Three Men" (1968)

The irresistible appeal of slavery: fear of losing the self in Octavia E. Butler's "Kindred" (1979)

Owning the script, owning the self: transcendence of fear in Sherley Anne Williams's "Dessa Rose" (1986)

10,000 miles from Dixie and still in the South: fear of transplanted racism in Yusef Komunyakaa's Vietnam poetry: "Dien Cai Dau" (1988)

Fear of family, Christianity, and the self: Southern black "othering" in Randall Kenan's "A Visitation of Spirits" (1989)

A haunting diary and a slasher quilt: using dynamic folk communities to combat terror in Phyllis Alesia Perry's "Stigmata" 1998)

Domesticating fear: Tayari Jones's mission in "Leaving Atlanta" (2002)

The worst fear imaginable: black slave owners in Edward P. Jones's "The Known World" (2003)

No fear; or, autoerotic creativity: how Raymond Andrews pleasures himself in "Baby Sweet's" (1983).