Tess Chakkalakal

Affiliation: Africana Studies, English
Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English

Tess Chakkalakal [pronounced “Chah-KAHL-ickle”] has published widely on nineteenth-century African American and American literature. She is the author of Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America (Illinois, 2011) which earned the Robert K. Martin Prize for best book on American literature and "a must read" title by Choice. She is co-editor of Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs (Georgia, 2013). She is also co-editor of Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs: A Critical Edition (West Virginia Press, 2022).

Her latest book, a biography of Charles W. Chesnutt, will be released by St. Martin’s Press in February. The first season of Professor Chakkalakal’s podcast series “Dead Writers” is available from Maine Public Radio as well as other podcast platforms. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Chop Point School and The Maine Maritime Museum.

Inquiries for speaking requests should be directed to Africana Studies’ Department Coordinator Elizabeth Palmer (epalmer@bowdoin.edu).

Office Hours: Wednesdays, noon to 3:00 p.m.

Book Cover  Book Cover  Jim Crow Literature Chakkalakal Book Cover Image  Chakkalakal Novel Bondage Book Cover Image

Left to right: Book covers for A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. ChesnuttImperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs: A Critical EditionJim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs; and Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America.


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Dead Writers Podcast
Dead Writers takes listeners inside famous American authors’ homes. Riffing on literature, history, home décor, gardens, and ghosts, literary critic Tess Chakkalakal and novelist Brock Clarke, bring great American writers, and the books they wrote, back from the dead.
Tess Chakkalakal Headshot

Education

  • PhD, York University
  • MA, York University
  • BA, University of Toronto