Speaking for Ourselves American Ethnic Writing

The second edition of "Speaking for Ourselves" continues the original purpose of bringing together writers of different ethnic backgrounds, representing the two-thirds of the American population that is not white Anglo-Saxon Protestant native-born of native parentage. The renaissance of ethnic writing encompassed by the selections in this book includes authors from the Black, Chicano, Native American, Jewish American, Asian American and White Ethnic (Polish, Irish, Italian, Greek, German and other European ethnicities) communities. Unlike 1969, the editors were faced with a tremendous amount of excellent material, making the task of selecting the very best and most representative examples of American minority-group writing extraordinarily difficult. It is our hope that the concerns of the writers reflect the concerns of readers -- if so, we as editors have succeeded.