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.

Author: Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 11/01/1994
Pages: 432
Weight: 1.02lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780140237788
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 05/01/1995 pg. 137
Booklist 10/01/1994 pg. 232
Library Journal 09/15/1994 pg. 74
Publishers Weekly 09/26/1994 pg. 57
Booklist Ed Choice Adu Bk YA's 01/15/1995 pg. 858

About the Author
Maria Mazziotti Gillan is an awardwinning poet and instructor whose volumes of poetry include Where I Come From, Things My Mother Told Me, and What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009. Her work has been appeared in a number of publications, including Boderlands, Prairie Schooner, Los Angeles Review, the Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times. She is the director of the creative writing program at Binghampton University--State University of New York and the executive director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College.

Jennifer Gillan is a professor of English and Media Studies at Bentley University. Her other books include Television & New Media: Must-Click TV, Understanding Reality TV, and Identity Lessons, coedited with Maria Mazziotti Gillan.