“Dark Mirror successfully shows how African American writers destabilize [Federal Writers’ Project] subunits’ portrayals of inclusion and modernization. … And as we observe federal attempts to heal the nation at present, Dark Mirror advances the possibility that New Deal–era African American literature may foresee what current legislative efforts might lay bare for a nation looking toward the promise of a brighter tomorrow.” —Christin Marie Taylor, Journal of African American History
“In situating intertexts primarily in their relationship to the New Deal, and the beginnings of the liberal welfare state, Dark Mirror is a significant contribution to an expanded analysis of the cultural and political complexities and tensions of these works and this era. Encouraging scholars to continue to further identify these enduring connections, Dark Mirror is itself a counter-modern intertext.” —Robin Lucy, MELUS
“Dark Mirror is an astute reading of a wide array of Black literary and nonfiction work . . . The genre-crossing in Dark Mirror is a welcome change from the perspective of a historian, and it is well worth it when the result is an altered reading of some of the most important intellectual productions of the twentieth century.” —Dylan O’Hara, Black Perspectives