Currently, I am the Director of the Lillian E. Smith Center at Piedmont University. I’ve published articles and book reviews in various venues including LEAR, MELUS, Mississippi Quarterly, African American Review and Callaloo. My research focuses on African American, Southern, and American literature. I’m the editor of Rediscovering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays (UPM 2020), and his current project examines Christopher Priest’s run on Black Panther. You can follow me on Twitter @SilasLapham.
I started Interminable Rambling in August 2015. On this site, I provide reflections on African American, American, and Southern Literature, American popular culture and politics, and pedagogy. Interminable Rambling arose out of the blog I maintained for the Ernest J Gaines Center. There, I wrote about items in the center’s archives, Gaines’ works, and texts that related to Gaines and Louisiana. When I moved on from the center, I started Interminable Rambling as a way to maintain a writing schedule.
What do you post?
My posts come, typically, from what I am teaching, reading, watching, or listening to at a particular moment. As well, the posts draw upon current events. As such, Interminable Rambling includes syllabi, posts on movies such as Black Panther and Star Wars, posts on music, posts on a diverse array of authors from George Washington Cable and Jonathan Edwards to T. Geronimo Johnson and Attica Locke, and posts on comics such as The Avengers and Swamp Thing.
How often do you post?
I maintain a twice-a-week schedule throughout the year, publishing every Tuesday and Thursday. Occasionally I take off a couple of weeks around the holidays in December.
How long are your posts?
The posts on Interminable Rambling vary between 1,000-1,500 words.
Where else does your work appear?
I am a regular contributor to Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society, and Teaching United States History. As well, my work has appeared at Public Books and on the C19 Podcast.
Interminable Rambling 