The Writer's Perspective : Voices from American Cultures Book

I. ON BEING A WRITER.

James Baldwin, Autobiographical Notes.

Sandra Cisneros, Ghosts and Voices: Writing from Obsession.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, You May Consider Speaking About Your Art.

Joan Didion, Why I Write.

bell hooks, Talking Back.

Toshio Mori, Confessions of an Unknown Writer.

Simon J. Ortiz, The Language We Know.

Ishmael Reed, Boxing on Paper.

Piri Thomas, from Seven Long Times.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., How to Write with Style.

II. IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY.

Rudolfo Anaya, The New World Man.

Gloria Anzaldua, Lifeline.

James Baldwin, The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American.

bell hooks, Keeping Close to Home.

N. Scott Momaday,from The Names.

Toshio Mori, The Long Journey and the Short Ride.

John Okada, from No-No Boy.

Ishmael Reed, America: The Multinational Society.

Philip Roth, My Baseball Years.

Gary Soto, Like Mexicans.

III. OTHER GENERATIONS AND TRADITIONS.

Rudolfo Anaya, from Bless Me, Ultima.

Frank Chin, Railroad Standard Time.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, The Power of Horses.

Maxine Hong Kingston, No Name Woman.

Paule Marshall, From the Poets in the Kitchen.

Cynthia Ozick, The Seam of the Snail.

R. A. Sasaki, The Loom.

Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman.

Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllables.

IV. A SENSE OF TIME AND PLACE.

James Baldwin, Fifth Avenue, Uptown: A Letter from Harlem.

Jim Barnes, On Native Ground.

Sandra Cisneros, from The House on Mango Street.

Joan Didion, Notes from a Native Daughter.

Rolando Hinojosa, The Sense of Place.

Audre Lorde, from Zami: A New Spelling of My Name.

Cynthia Ozick, A Drugstore in Winter.

R. A. Sasaki, American Fish.

Gary Soto, Looking for Work.

V. WRITING AND SOCIAL CHANGE.

Gloria Anzaldua, Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers.

James Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers.

Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson.

Raymond Barrio, from The Plum Plum Pickers.

Sandra Cisneros, Notes to a Young(er) Writer.

Audre Lorde, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.

Toshio Mori, Tomorrow Is Coming, Children.

Simon J. Ortiz, The Panther Waits.

Gary Soto, One Last Time.

Piri Thomas, All-Around Man.

Richard Wright, from Black Boy.

Richard Wright, from American Hunger.

TOPICS FOR WRITING.

Topics for Section I: On Being a Writer.

Topics for Section II: Indentity and Community.

Topics for Section III: Other Generations and Traditions.

Topics for Section IV: A Sense of Time and Place.

Topics for Section V: Writing and Social Change.

Topics Across Sections.

Author and Title Index.