Platitudes & "the New Black Aesthetic"

Trey Ellis's uproariously funny debut novel Platitudes, first published in 1988, takes on conflicts within the African American literary community. Dewayne Wellington, a failing black experimental novelist, and Isshee Ayam, a radical feminist author, collaborate on Dewayne's latest sexist comedy. Alternately telling the story about the coming of age of Earle and Dorothy-two black middle-class teenagers, sex-starved in New York City-the battling writers sneak ever, and dangerously, closer to reconciling their literary disputes. This edition of Platitudes also includes "The New Black Aesthetic," a groundbreaking essay by Ellis that appeared in the journal Callaloo.

Trey Ellis is a professional novelist and screenwriter. In addition to Platitudes, he has written the highly acclaimed novels Home Repairs and Right Here, Right Now, as well as several screenplays, including The Inkwell and The Tuskegee Airmen. He lives in Santa Monica, California. Bertram D. Ashe is Associate Professor of English at the College of Holy Cross. He lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. Richard Yarborough, editor of the Northeastern Library of Black Literature, is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.