Unsettling America
An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry
-
- $14.99
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
A multicultural array of poets explore what it is means to be American
This powerful and moving collection of poems stretches across the boundaries of skin color, language, ethnicity, and religion to give voice to the lives and experiences of ethnic Americans. With extraordinary honesty, dignity, and insight, these poems address common themes of assimilation, communication, and self-perception. In recording everyday life in our many American cultures, they displace the myths and stereotypes that pervade our culture.
Unsettling America includes work by:
Amiri Baraka
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Rita Dove
Louise Erdich
Jessica Hagedorn
Joy Harjo
Garrett Hongo
Li-Young Lee
Pat Mora
Naomi Shihab Nye
Marye Percy
Ishmael Reed
Alberto Rios
Ntozake Shange
Gary Soto
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Nellie Wong
David Hernandez
Mary TallMountain
...and many more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aptly titled, this substantial anthology provides exposure to poets, emerging and established-Louis Simpson, Rita Dove, Luis Rodriguez-who write directly from the immigrant, ethnic and/or religious experience. The collection gives evidence of inequality and discrimination, and offers eyewitness accounts of the gross inconsistencies and bigotry of America. The poems tap into visceral energies, either born of or becoming a vitalizing anger; they bristle with a recognition of failed expectations. Thoughtful and attentive, the mother/daughter editorial team of the Gillans divides the book into sections concerned with ``uprooting,'' ``performing,'' ``naming,'' ``negotiating'' and, finally and hopefully, ``re-envisioning.'' The most moving poems concern a loss of home and custom, and the compromises struck in order to make life tolerable in a quietly (and not so quietly) intolerant society. Also distressing is work describing the intense desire of some poets to assimilate-efforts later remembered as humiliating. This collection is a must for anyone seeking an inclusive, unwincing catalogue of the American experience.
