He is the author or editor of a number of textbooks and critical studies of American literature, including:
- The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature (co-edited with Michael Meyer), New York: Macmillan (13th edition, 2020)
- James Baldwin in Context (edited volume), Cambridge University Press (2019)
- Understanding John Edgar Wideman, Columbia, South Carolina: U of South Carolina Press (2018)
- American Literature in Transition 1980-1990 (edited volume), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2018)
- The Routledge Introduction to African American Literature London: Routledge (2016)
- 'A Criminal Power': James Baldwin and the Law Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University Press (2012)
- Connections: Literature for Composition (co-edited with Julie Nash), Boston: Houghton Mifflin (2008)
- The Heath Anthology of American Literature (co-edited with Paul Lauter et al.), Boston: Cengage (6th edition: 2010)
- Prose and Cons: New Essays on U.S. Prison Literature (edited volume), Jefferson, NC: McFarland (2005)
- The Generation of Ideas, Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage (2005)
- John Updike and the Cold War, Missouri University Press (2001)
- Re-viewing James Baldwin: Things Not Seen (edited volume), Philadelphia: Temple University Press (2000)
