Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393327868 ISBN 13: 9780393327861

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006

Synopsis

Though multiracialism has recently become a popular aspect of many memoirs and novels, "Mixed" is the first of its kind: a fiction anthology with racial overlap as its compass. With original pieces by both established and emerging writers, "Mixed" explores the complexities of identity that come with being a multiracial person.

Every story, crafted by authors who are themselves mixed-race, broaches multiracialism through character or theme. With contributors such as Cristina Garcia, Danzy Senna, Ruth Ozeki, Mat Johnson, Wayde Compton, Diana Abu-Jaber, Emily Raboteau, Mary Yukari Waters, and Peter Ho Davies, and an illuminating introduction by Rebecca Walker, "Mixed" gives narrative voice to the multiple identities of the rising generation.

Contents:

The anthropologists' kids by Ruth Ozeki
Effigies by Lucinda Roy
Minotaur by Peter Ho Davies
Mrs. Turner's lawn Jockeys by Emily Raboteau
Footnote by Carmit Delman
My Elizabeth by Diana Abu-Jaber
Gift giving by Mat Johnson
Shadey by Stewart David Ikeda
Unacknowledged by Brian Ascalon Roley
Caste system by Mary Yukari Waters
Wayward by Chandra Prasad
Falling sky by Cristina Garcia
The non-Babylonians by Wayde Compton
Hollywood by Marina Budhos
Human mathematics by Mamle Kabu
Bing-Chen by Neela Vaswani
The lost sparrow by Kien Nguyen
Triad by Danzy Senna

About this title

Reviews

Pradsad's Outwitting the Job Market included meditations on diversity and the workplace; her choice of fiction over nonfiction for this anthology may reflect her own shifts: her novel One of the Boys is due in 2007. All of the contributors are from mixed or multiracial backgrounds; Prasad notes in her foreword that there is "some commonality" among them: "being proof of an increasingly global society, acting as the solder between various communities, straddling cultural expectations." In "Footnote," memoirist Carmit Delman (Burnt Bread and Chutney) writes of a quarter-Indian girl raised in West Virginia who takes a carnal route to discovering identity. Mat Johnson's "Gift Giving" uses the typical story of the cuckold (the author dedicates the story to an ex-fiance) to dispel numerous clichés of biracial coupledom: "The women I knew who socialized white always had some mythic white ex-boyfriend to whom no Negro could compare." In "The Caste System," Mary Yukari Waters (The Laws of Evening) sends Sarah Rexford to Japan with her grandmother for a visit to her mother's grave, and to her aunt Kimiko. There are short author bios written by the writers themselves, and thumbnail photos of each author. At the end of each of the 18 stories, the writer gives a brief description of what inspired it.
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Going way beyond the mythology of the tragic mulatto, this anthology of short stories by and about people of mixed racial heritage explores the complexities of multiracialism and multiculturalism. Ruth Ozeki offers a quasi-autobiographical story about the children of white anthropologists and their Asian wives; British Jamaican Lucinda Roy tells of a mixed-race professor whose authenticity as a black man is questioned; Peter Ho Davies, Welsh and Chinese, writes of a confused minotaur, the result of a mixed-species liaison; Prasad, of Italian, English, Swedish, and Indian heritage, conveys the alienation of an adolescent girl who is part-Indian, part-Russian. Other contributors include Emily Raboteau, Diana Abu-Jaber, Mat Johnson, Cristina Garcia, Wayde Compton, and Neela Vaswani. Each piece is preceded by a short biographical sketch of the writer and concludes with a commentary. This is an absorbing and thought-provoking collection of stories that explore racial identity, alienation, and people often forced to choose between races and cultures in a search for self-identity. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393327868
• ISBN 13: 9780393327861
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 326
• Editor: Chandra Prasad