Book

Identity lessons : contemporary writing about learning to be American / edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jennifer Gillan.

New York : Penguin Books, 1999.

xxi, 374 pages ; 21 cm

Identity Lessons features selections by Sherman Alexie, Marie Howe, Amiri Baraka, and a wide array of our finest contemporary writers. These stories and poems examine the struggle between the need to belong and the undeniable influence of each individual's cultural roots. In pieces that question the common definition of "American," some of the sharpest and most original voices writing today give their ethnic perspectives on growing up in America.

American literature -- Minority authors.

National characteristics, American -- Literary collections.

Ethnic groups -- Literary collections.

Group identity -- Literary collections.

Immigrants -- Literary collections.

American literature -- 20th century.

Literature.

Gillan, Maria M.

Gillan, Jennifer.

Includes index.

Names / Ruth Stone -- Pokeberries / Ruth Stone -- Beets / Tiffany Midge -- Magnalia Christi Americana / T.H.S. Wallace -- daughters / Lucille Clifton -- fury / Lucille Clifton -- Dear Mama / Sonia Sanchez -- Linked / Naomi Shihab Nye -- I Go Back to May 1937 / Sharon Olds -- The Portrait / Stanley Kunitz -- Cracked Portraits / Agha Shahid Ali -- Those Were the Days / Philip Levine -- The Substitute / Stephen Dunn -- The Liar / Tobias Wolff -- Daddy, We Called You / Maria Mazziotti Gillan -- Sangre 24: A Legacy / Leroy V. Quintana -- Working Class / Lenard D. Moore -- from attic / Justin Vitiello -- Always Running / Luis J. Rodriguez -- Company Outing / Diana Der-Hovanessian -- Tending / Elizabeth Alexander.

Table of contents

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

98028816

0140271678

9780140271676

39313612

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109929

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810.8 Identity