Includes bibliographical references (pages 304-306) and index.

On Langston Hughes / R. Baxter Miller -- Biography of Langston Hughes / Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper -- The critical reception of Langston Hughes, 1924-2012 / R. Baxter Miller and Dolan Hubbard -- The "Diamond stair" within : black female inspiration in Hughes's poetry / R. Baxter Miller -- History and historicity in the work of Langston Hughes / Hans Ostrom -- In the shadow of the blues : aesthetic discoveries by Ma Rainey, Langston Hughes, and Sterling A. Brown / John Edgar Tidwell -- Reassessing Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance : toward an African American aesthetic / Christopher C. De Santis -- The creative voice in the autobiographies of Langston Hughes / Joseph McLaren -- I'm lonely: I'll build me a family : functional family relationships in the life and art of Langston Hughes / Carmaletta M. Williams -- Hughes and lynching / W. Jason Miller -- The blues I'm not playing? : Langston Hughes in the 1930s / David Roessel -- Hughes's stories and the test of faith / Sharon L. Jones -- Madam Alberta K. Johnson and the women of the "simple" tales / Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper -- Without respect for gender : damnable inference in "blessed assurance" / Steven C. Tracy -- Inspired by Hughes : Hughes's dramatic legacy in the twenty-first century / Leslie Sanders -- "Yo tambien soy America" : Latin American receptions of Langston Hughes's American dream / Laurence E. Prescott -- Langston Hughes, modernism, and modernity / John Lowney -- Resources : Chronology of Langston Hughes's Life ; Works by Langston Hughes ; Bibliography.

Poet, playwright, and short story writer Langston Hughes remains perhaps one of the most well known African American writers of the twentieth century. This volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on the poet laureate of Harlem. --from publisher description.