Multicultural Literature in the United States Today

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Multicultural Literature in the United States Today

February 2009

The United States is enriched culturally by immigrants from many nations. This edition of eJournal USA focuses on distinguished American writers from various ethnic backgrounds who add immeasurably to mutual understanding and appreciation through tales of their native lands and their experiences as Americans.

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People & Places

Offering a place for everyone

Translations

Inside This Publication

Volume 14, Number 2

Overview

About This Issue
We Are a Nation of Many Voices
Diversity in the United States has created a fresh, dynamic literature with new kinds of American stories.

African Americans

Literature at the Crossroads
Tayari Jones
The crossroads is a sacred space where the specific and the universal meet and where African-American writing happily exists beside the transcendent, universal nature of art.
Ghost Dog: Or, How I Wrote My First Novel
Randall Kenan
North Carolina ambience and wisps of old legends infuse the work of this native son.
Rwanda to America: Writing as Transformation
Immaculée Ilibagiza
Writing helped this survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide come to terms with her horrific experience and loss while allowing her to fulfill a mission of forgiveness.
What Is African-American Literature?
Gerald Early
Urban or Hip-Hop Fiction may signal a new maturity and broadening of African-American writing.

Indigenous Americans

Writing to Bridge the Mixed-Blood Divide
Susan Power
A young girl comes to terms with her Dakota Sioux and Anglo heritage with the help of stories spun by her American Indian mother.
Simple Memories as Poems
Ofelia Zepeda
Poet Zepeda finds inspiration for her work in childhood memories, events, and her native Tohono O’odham language.
Pulling Down the Clouds
Ofelia Zepeda
The Toughest Indian in the World
Sherman Alexie
Life on the Indian reservation and the relationship between father and son are the themes of these vignettes.
Teaching the Art of Being Human
Interviews by Lea Terhune
The ancient art of storytelling still thrives in American Indian communities today. Two practitioners tell how stories teach basic lessons of morality and humaneness.
Blackfeet Troubadour Sings Traditions
A Storyteller Jack Gladstone talks about his heritage.

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East Asian Americans

American Fortune Cookie
Jennifer 8. Lee
The fortune cookie, believed by most Americans to have come from China, in fact, did nothing of the sort.
Finding Allies in Books
Bich Minh Nguyen
Icons of literature helped this young Vietnamese immigrant learn about American culture and ultimately led her to becoming a writer.
The Language of Betrayal
Ha Jin
Writing in a second, very different, language is both a challenge and a statement — and a way to pursue one’s vision.

Latino Americans

New Immigrant Tales: Junot Díaz and Afro-Latino Fiction
Glenda Carpio
The writer of Junot Díaz breaks new ground by easily moving between Afro-Latino ethnicities and his American identity formed in urban New Jersey.
An Interview with Junot Díaz
The writer speaks about growing up Dominican American.
Lost City Radio
Daniel Alarcón
The scene is set for turbulence in a sleepy, fictional Latin American town.

Photo Gallery

Perspectives on Identity

The freedom to express one's ethnic, racial or social identity, and still be considered wholly American, is a common ideal grounded in the belief that people should be able to define themselves as they choose, and respect the freedom of others to do the same.

Middle Eastern and South Asian

Netting the Clouds
Diana Abu-Jaber
Being half Arab meant a rich life of good food, lots of vivacious relatives, and a sense of being different while being fully American.
Writing from a Complex Ethnic Perspective
Persis Karim
This Californian daughter of an Iranian father and French mother became fascinated by her Persian heritage, and exploring the nuances of her complex ethnic background became her mission.
One Indian Writer’s Experience
Akhil Sharma
Immigration, South Asian culture, luck, and Ernest Hemingway are all milestones on the path of this Indian-American writer.
Influences on My Work
Tamim Ansary
Afghan poetry traditions, legends, and old illustrated books primed the imagination of Afghan-American writer Tamim Ansary.
The Dacca Gauzes
Agha Shahid Ali
The late, influential Indian-American poet Agha Shahid Ali drew from his Kashmiri heritage, Urdu poetry, and his life in America for inspiration for his works.

Russian Americans

Sixty-Nine Cents
Gary Shteyngart
A trip to Disneyland for a family of Russian immigrants becomes a generational tug-of-war between Old and New World food cultures, at least in the mind of the young protagonist of this short story.
My Literary Crushes
Lara Vapnyar
Although many authors vied for her affections as a girl, Chekhov won Lara Vapnyar’s heart for a lifetime.

Resources

Additional Resources

Books, Articles, and Web Sites on Multicultural Literature

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