Synopses & Reviews
By turns touching and hilarious,
Coming of Age in America gathers together writers from fifteen different ethnic groups who, through their fiction, explore the terrain we all traverse as we come of age, no matter our race, ethnicity, gender, or class.
With over twenty short stories and fiction excerpts by noted authors such as Julia Alvarez and Frank Chin, Dorothy Allison and Adam Schwartz, Reginald McNight and Tobias Wolff, Coming of Age in America shows that our common experiences are more binding than our differences are divisive. Since its initial publication in 1994, Coming of Age in America has evolved from a groundbreaking collection of underrepresented voices into a timeless album of unforgettable literature. A wonderfully readable collection, this is a marvelous resource for those looking for stories that illustrate the convergence of cultural experience and literature.
Review
"This collection is proof that our collective reality is expressed through many fugues, intonations, and accents. It is in the varied voices, the unique stories, and the universal life-sphere of growing up that we find what truly unites us."
—Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
Synopsis
The acne and ecstasy of adolescence, a multicultural collection of short stories and fiction excerpts that Library Journal calls "wonderfully diverse from the standard fare".
About the Author
Mary Frosch is also the editor of Coming of Age Around the World (The New Press). As a teacher at The Spence School she designed a world literature curriculum and helped implement the multicultural literature program. She divides her time between New York City and Santa Monica, California. Gary Soto is the author of over a dozen works of fiction and poetry. Winner of numerous prizes, including the 1985 National Book Award and a prize from the Academy of American Poets, Soto lives in Northern California.