Writer

WRITTEN OR EDITED

raising-fencestough-loveblack-loveMY BROTHERS KEEPER

Animating Black and Brown Liberation: A Theory of American Literatures
Animating Black and Brown Liberation: A Theory of American Literatures explores the intersection of activism and literatures, while specifically linking African American and Latinx struggles for liberation. Rooted in both ancient Egyptian ideas about life and cutting-edge theories of animacy (levels of aliveness), Dr. Michael Datcher creates a new literary tool—ankhing—to examine how Black  and Brown literatures featuring activist characters resist oppression.
SUNY Press 2019. Order link: https://bit.ly/2TLcwqY 

“In Animating Black and Brown Liberation, Michael Datcher posits a bold new way of approaching a variety of important texts . . . This volume is a thought-provoking addition to the world of literary criticism.”
— Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard University

“Few projects have endeavored to bridge African American and Latinx literatures, and Animating Black and Brown Liberation does so with a clarity and brilliance not seen in a long time.”
— Ellie D. Hernández, University of California Santa Barbara

RAISING FENCES
“Deeply reflective, occasionally offbeat and tearful, Datcher’s memoir combines attitude, honesty and romance in a way that should appeal to both men and women. This triumphant tale is a stunning tribute to perseverance.”
—- Publishers Weekly

“Brutally honest, hauntingly poetic…heartbreaking.”
— Essence

AMERICUS
“Set in an era of white mob violence that crested and broke in the early decades of the twentieth century, Michael Datcher weaves a narrative of three generations of sons trying to cultivate and maintain their manhood against relentless forces. Simultaneously a mythic novel and a historical one, AMERICUS is a story of the monsters that emerge from the monstrosities of American history. With this novel, Datcher joins August Wilson and Toni Morrison as an American storyteller.”
-— P. Gabrielle Foreman, Ned B. Allen Professor of English &Black Studies, The University of Delaware

“Through powerful storytelling and compelling characters, Datcher weaves an American Story that makes you think deeply about the story of America.”
—- Eric Jerome Dickey, New York Times Bestselling author of A Wanted Woman

“Readers (and writers) will exult in this dazzling iteration of Egyptian mythology set on the banks of the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, Illinois. In Michael Datcher’s brilliantly wrought ‘soular’ system, a set of twins, a family, a community, and America undergo rites de passage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Datcher’s novelistic authority includes … some passages that are reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez and Toni Morrison.”
—- Eugene B. Redmond, Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, Illinois & Founding Editor, Drumvoices Revue

ANTHOLOGIES

BROWN SUGARANOTHER CITYBODY AND SOULROLE CALL TESTIMONY now-write what-makes-a-man soul-fires bum-rush-the-page