Table of Contents
Introduction
Performing
E.L. Doctorow: The Writer in the Family
Amy Tan: Rules of the Game
Gary Soto: Looking for Work
Bebe Moore Campbell: The Best Deal in America
Nash Candelaria: The Day the Cisco Kid Shot John Wayne
Darryl Pinckney: The New Negro
Tiffany Midge: A Half-Breed's Dream Vacation
Kathryn Nocerino: Americanism
Frank Chin: Railroad Standard Time
Crossing
Judith Ortiz Cofer: American History
Louise Erdrich: The Red Convertible
Toni Morrison: from The Bluest Eye
Lynne Sharon Schwartz: Killing the Bees
Mary Bucci Bush: Drowning
Liz Rosenberg: Magic
Daniel Asa Rose: The Cossacks of Connecticut
Sandra Cisneros: Mericans
Negotiating
Gish Jen: What Means Switch
Laura Boss: Myrna and Me
Bruce A. Jacobs: Dinner with Father
Beena Kamlani: Brandy Cake
Enid Dame: Drowning Kittens
Diane Glancy: Portrait of the Lone Survivor
Joseph Geha: Holy Toledo
Maria Mazziotti Gillan: Carlton Fredericks and My Mother
Afaa Michael Weaver: Honey Boy
Bridging
Sherman Alexie: This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
Veronica Chambers: from Mama's Girl
Diane di Prima: from Recollections of My Life as a Woman
Naomi Shihab Nye: Red Velvet Dress
Fred L. Gardaphé: Grandpa's "Chicaudies"
Roshni Rustomji: Thanksgiving in a Monsoonless Land
Simon J. Ortiz: To Change in a Good Way
Helena María Virmontes: The Moths
Sylvia A. Watanabe: Talking to the Dead
Contributors
Index