Charles I. Nero received the Ph.D from Indiana University, an MA from Wake Forest University, and a BA from Xavier University (New Orleans). Nero works at Bates College where he is an Associate Professor of Theater and Rhetoric and teaches courses in the African American and American Cultural Studies Programs Nero is acknowledged for his expertise in black gay literature. His essay "Towards a Black Gay Aesthetic: Signifyin(g) in Contemporary Black Gay Literature" has been republished in numerous literary and cultural studies anthologies. He wrote the entries "Gay Literature" and "Gay" for the new Oxford Encyclopedia of African American Literature. His essay on Langston Hughes appears in Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures; A Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. He has written the introduction for a new and forthcoming edition of Essex Hemphill's collection of prose and poetry Ceremonies. His essays about Essex Hemphill and Melvin Dixon appear in the forthcoming Dictionary of Literary Biography: African American Literature in the 21st Century. Nero's writings also appear in The Howard Journal of Communications, The Journal of Multicultural Counseling, The Journal of Counseling and Development, Law and Sexuality: A Review of Lesbian and Gay Legal Issues, and The Lambda Book Review. Currently, he is working on a study of the Old Testament Book of Esther's influence on African American culture and on a study of black gay literature.