He has written on slave narratives for the Encyclopaedia of African American History, 1619-1895, and his most recent collection of poems, Start with the Trouble (University of Arkansas Press, 2009), won the 2010 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. The Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture.