For James Coleman on His Retirement:
When I was department chair, I liked to describe us as a “full-service English department.” James Coleman was one of the colleagues I would have singled out as a prime example of what I meant by full-service. He’s taught the courses that needed to be taught as well as the ones he may have preferred. He’s done the committee work that demanded care and thoroughness but that rarely puts those who serve in this fashion in the limelight. He’s trained and mentored graduate students and shown them by example what professionalism in our discipline means. Since coming to UNC almost twenty years ago, he’s set a standard for regular publication of first-rate books whose cumulative import have placed him in the forefront of critics who study fiction by contemporary African American male writers. It’s a pleasure to salute James Coleman for his exemplary career and to thank him for all he has done to benefit his students and his colleagues, as well as this department as a whole.