Jeff Birkenstein is a professor of English at Saint Martin's University, Lacey, Washington. He is an avid believer in collaborative publishing and editing.

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Social Justice is a comprehensive and multi- purpose collection on this important topic. With contributors working in various fields, the Companion provides in- depth analyses of both the cumulative and emergent issues, obstacles, praxes, propositions, and theories of social justice. The first section offers a historical overview of major developments and debates in the field, while the following sections look in more detail at the key traditions and show how literature and theory can be applied as analytical tools to real- world inequalities and the impact of doing so. The contributors provide reviews of major theoretical traditions, including Marxism, feminism, Critical Race Theory, disability studies, and queer studies. They also share literary analyses of influential authors including W. E. B. Du Bois, Yang Kui, Edwidge Danticat, Octavia Butler, and Rivers Solomon amongst others. The final section considers future possibilities for theory and action of justice, drawing specifically from theories and knowledges in decolonial, Indigenous, environmental, and posthumanist studies. This authoritative volume draws on the intersections between literary studies and social movements in order to provide scholars, students, and activists alike with a complete collection of the most up- to- date information on both canonical and emerging texts and case studies globally.

This anthology of contemporary American poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction, explores issues of identity, oppression, injustice, and social change. Living American writers produced each piece between 1980 and the present; works were selected based on literary merit and the manner in which they address one or more pressing social issues. William Reichard has assembled some of the most respected literary artists of our time, asking whose voices are ascendant, whose silenced, and why. The work as a whole reveals shifting perspectives and the changing role of writing in the social justice arena over the last few decades.

This book provides diverse perspectives on Shakespeare and early modern literature that engage innovation, collaboration, and forward-looking practices.

This text invites pre-service teachers to explore arts-informed practices that showcase the transformative potential of literature in the classroom. Through the lens of "stories-we-live-by," the authors recognize literature as interference, capable of disrupting the habitual patterns through which we interpret the world in order to reawaken the capacity of students and teachers alike to change. Chapters are designed to inspire students’ love of literature by fostering literary and artful encounters that provoke their thinking and sense-making. Each chapter includes engaging pedagogical features that spark thinking and analysis of literature and invite readers to further engagement. The appendices include directions for instruction as well as additional resources. An essential text for courses on children’s and adolescent literature and English methods, pre-service teachers will come away with plenty of text recommendations and arts- and social justice-informed practices to use with their future students. Through artful encounters with visual learning analyses, visual-verbal journals, drama, soundscapes, poetry, and so much more, readers examine their own transformative experiences with literature. Readers will learn to craft and curate practices that encourage engagement, imagination, experimentation, and self-awareness in and beyond the classroom.

Give students the power of language by using the inspiring ideas in this very readable book.