Synopses & Reviews
When Johnquell, an African American teen, suffers a serious accident in the home of his white neighbor, Mrs. Czernicki, his community must find ways to bridge divisions between black and white, gay and straight, old and young. Set in one of the nations most highly segregated citiesMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Meet Me Halfway tells stories of connections in a community with a tumultuous and divided past. In nine stories told from diverse perspectives, Jennifer Morales captures a Rust Belt citys struggle to establish a common ground and a collective vision of the future.
Morales gives life to multifaceted characterswhite schoolteachers and senior citizens, Latino landlords, black and Puerto Rican teens, political activists, and Vietnam vets. As their lives unfold in these stories, we learn about Johnquells familyhis grandparents involvement in the local Black Panther Party, his sisters on-again, off-again friendship with a white classmate, and his aunts identity crisis as she finds herself falling in love with a woman. We also meet Johnquells mother, Gloria, and his school friend Taquan, who is struggling to chart his own future.
As an activist mother in the thick of Milwaukee politics, Morales developed a keen ear and a tender heart for the kids who have inherited the citys troubled racial legacy. With a critical eye on promises unfulfilled, Meet Me Halfway raises questions about the notion of a postracial” society and, with humor and compassion, lifts up the day-to-day work needed to get there.
Review
"
All about Skin is electrifying and absolutely necessary. Within you will find the true heart of a literature."Junot Díaz, author of
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoReview
"There is no other short story collection even similar to
All about Skin; it takes an entirely different approach in that all of the contributors are literary-award-winning African, African American, Asian, Asian American, Native American, Latina, and Caribbean women writers."Sandra Y. Govan, University of North CarolinaCharlotte
Review
"All about Skin takes us above and below the skin of fascinating characters from the inner cities, immigrant enclaves, and academia of the United States, and from Africa to Asia, among many settings."María Acosta Cruz, author of Dream Nation: Puerto Rican Culture and the Fictions of Independence
Review
Written with a sharp eye and a warm heart,
Meet Me Halfway brings us into a multicultural community where people are trying to do the right thing, even when the wrong thing happens and a child dies. Richly textured, funny, and wise.”Kelly Cherry, author of
A Kind of DreamReview
Morales convincingly lets us see through the eyes of a young black boy, a racist white woman, a narrow-minded substitute teacher, a lesbian woman, a left-wing housewife, and many more real lives. There are surprises here, and real people to remember.”Martha Bergland, author of
A Farm Under a LakeReview
Jennifer Morales does nothing halfwayshe throws herself full-force into the heart of Milwaukee, into the lives of her characters, and demands that the reader meet them with just as much empathy and respect. A stunning, stirring collection, one that will inspire dialogue and maybe even change.”Gayle Brandeis, author of
The Book of Dead Birds, winner of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement
Review
“Morales fully inhabits the astonishingly diverse voices of her characters, allowing us to connect with them and their linked stories as they struggle to connect with each other in an ever-shifting cultural landscape.”—Jenn Crowell, author of Necessary Madness and Etched on Me
Review
“Meet Me Halfway portrays powerfully the silences and blind spots, the ways of hesitating, questioning, baiting, and confronting that comprise the daily playing-out of racism. This book brings a chill of recognition: yes, I’ve been there.”—Margaret Rozga, author of Justice Freedom Herbs
Review
“In this intriguing collection of 27 short stories, editors Ortiz & Spencer demonstrate how widely women writers of color range, with stories spanning mother-daughter relationships; forgiveness; the difficulty of being young, insecure, and in an interracial relationship; and issues of nationality.”—Ashanti White,
Library Journal Review
“Each candid, creative writer . . . sets taut dramas in motion in which archetypal human pursuits are cruelly and absurdly complicated by gender and race, adding up to a provocative and commanding collection.” —Donna Seaman, Booklist
Synopsis
A short fiction anthology of work by award-winning, multicultural, women writers,
All about Skin captures the reality of harsh media pressures, difficult family relationships, racial prejudices, and other problems that face women of color around the world.
Synopsis
Even the most ordinary moments are infused with an awareness of the lost past and a kind of prescience of the future. From one setting to another, these poems give voice to the human longing for permanence, home and connection in the face of a constantly changing reality.
Synopsis
All about Skin features twenty-seven stories by women writers of color whose short fiction has earned them a range of honors, including John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Flannery O'Connor Award, and inclusion in the
Best American Short Stories and
O. Henry anthologies. The prose in this multicultural anthology addresses such themes as racial prejudice, media portrayal of beauty, and family relationships and spans genres from the comic and the surreal to startling realism. It demonstrates the power and range of some of the most exciting women writing short fiction today.
The stories are by American writers Aracelis González Asendorf, Jacqueline Bishop, Glendaliz Camacho, Learkana Chong, Jennine Capó Crucet, Ramola D., Patricia Engel, Amina Gautier, Manjula Menon, ZZ Packer, Princess Joy L. Perry, Toni Margarita Plummer, Emily Raboteau, Ivelisse Rodriguez, Metta Sáma, Joshunda Sanders, Renee Simms, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Hope Wabuke, and Ashley Young; Nigerian writers Unoma Azuah and Chinelo Okparanta; and Chinese writer Xu Xi.
Synopsis
When an African American teen suffers a serious accident in the home of his white neighbor, his community must find ways to bridge divisions between black and white, gay and straight, old and young.
About the Author
Jina Ortiz is a writer and poet whose works have appeared in many publications, including the
Afro-Hispanic Review,
Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, and
New Millennium Writings. She lives in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she is an adjunct professor of English at Quinsigamond Community College. Rochelle Spencer is a writer who has contributed to many publications, including
Callaloo,
African American Review,
Poets and Writers,
Publishers Weekly, and
Mosaic. She is completing a doctorate focusing on Afrofuturism and is on the Board of Directors for the Hurston-Wright Foundation.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Helena María Viramontes
Preface
Rochelle Spencer
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1 Coming-of-Age
Aida
Patricia Engel
Fairness
Chinelo Okparanta
Pita Delicious
ZZ Packer
Candidate
Amina Gautier
How to Leave the Midwest
Renee Simms
The Perfect Subject
Ramola D.
A Different Story
Ivelisse Rodriguez
Part 2 Reinvention
American Child
Manjula Menon
Arcadia
Hope Wabuke
Sirens
Joshunda Sanders
Just the Way She Does the Things
Jennine Capó Crucet
The Great Pretenders
Ashley Young
A Penny, a Pound
Princess Joy L. Perry
Part 3 Borderlands
The Accidents of a Veronica
Toni Margarita Plummer
The Rapture
Emily Raboteau
The Lost Ones
Aracelis González Asendorf
Noelia and Amparo
Glendaliz Camacho
A Strange People
Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Lillian Is an Ordinary Child
Metta Sáma
Entropy 20:12
Learkana Chong
Beautiful Things
Jacqueline Bishop
Lady Chatterley's Mansion
Unoma Azuah
All about Skin
Xu Xi
Contributors