Chain-Gang All-Stars

Salem James Martinez is a PhD candidate in the English department at UCLA. Their research interests find them at the intersections of race, popular culture, and politics. They use Black science fiction and speculative fiction to think about aesthetic productions of racialized violence, and how we might imagine better worlds otherwise.

Salem James Martinez

Where Life Is Precious, Life Is Precious. And Surely That’s Not Here: On Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s “Chain-Gang All-Stars”

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't." — Mark Twain

Fiction

"You can't ignore politics, no matter how much you'd like to." — Molly Ivins

Politics

"Writing only leads to more writing." — Colette

Literary Criticism

"The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it." — Frank Herbert

"Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors." — Simone Weil

Cultural Studies

Salem James Martinez is a PhD candidate in the English department at UCLA. Their research interests find them at the intersections of race, popular culture, and politics. They use Black science fiction and speculative fiction to think about aesthetic productions of racialized violence, and how we might imagine better worlds otherwise.

Salem James Martinez

Articles

Where Life Is Precious, Life Is Precious. And Surely That’s Not Here: On Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s “Chain-Gang All-Stars”