Humor Me: An Anthology of Humor by Writers of Color - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877458081 ISBN 13: 9780877458081

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 2002

Synopsis

A collecton of humorous works by writers of color includes the work of Sherman Alexie, Erika Lopez, Jim Northrup, Gish Jen, Charles Johnson, and Lucille Clifton, among others. Original.

About this title

About the Author

John McNally is the Jenny McKean Moore Visiting Writer at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Troublemakers (Iowa, 2000), winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award, and editor of The Student Body: Short Stories about College Students and Professors and High Infidelity: 24 Great Short Stories about Adultery.

From Publishers Weekly

This book developed out of frustrations felt by McNally, author of the well-received short story collection Troublemakers, when he prepared to teach a course on humor in American literature. He found that minority writers were almost completely ignored. Here, he takes a small step toward remedying the situation. The editor observes that not all these pieces are by writers who identify as humorists, and that the role of humor varies broadly among them. Nor is race the central theme of the book, since a good portion of the humor hinges on more universal themes of sex, ambition and ladder climbing. Among the 10 short pieces of fiction here, Daniel Chacón's "Godoy Lives" is excellent but more darkly ironic than funny: an illegal immigrant finds himself welcomed by the cousin of the dead man whose ID he is using. The poetry (including pieces by Lucille Clifton and Paisley Rekdal) is decent, but not necessarily chuckle-inducing. Author Charles Johnson has submitted a few funny cartoons, but he doesn't deserve 27 pages worth. Among three pieces of nonfiction, Sherman Alexie's "White Men Can't Drum" and Sandra Tsing Loh's "Daddy Dearest" both amuse. Finally, the one piece of drama included, Jim Northrup's "Shinnob Jep," a parody of Jeopardy, offers darkly caustic comments on Native American life, but overextends the premise. The editor states that he received fewer than a dozen submissions for this anthology, and the mix of poetry, cartoon, fiction and nonfiction he ended up with is finally diffuse. (Apr.)
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0877458081
• ISBN 13: 9780877458081
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 232
• Editor: McNally John