Langston Hughes (1901-1967) was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance and twentieth-century Black literature. Although he achieved his greatest fame as a poet, he had a wide-ranging literary career. His many books included the poetry collection The Weary Blues, the novel Not Without Laughter, the story collection The Ways of White Folks, and the autobiographies The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander. Ricardo A. Wilson II is a creative writer and scholar. He is associate professor of English at Williams College and founder and executive director of The Outpost Foundation, a residency and arts advocacy organization for writers of color from the United States and Latin America. He is the author of An Apparent Horizon and Other Stories and The Nigrescent Beyond: Mexico, the United States, and the Psychic Vanishing of Blackness.