An extraordinary debut and exciting new voice in multicultural fiction, Patti Kim's A Cab Called Reliable Winner of the Towson University Prize for Literature Nominated for the Book-of-the-Month Club's Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction Ahn Joo Cho emigrated with her family from Korea to Virginia at the age of seven. Two years later, a cab called 'Reliable' took away her mother and her infant brother forever. Grade by grade in school, Ahn Joo comes of age within an alien society, excelling at creative writing as her home life with her old-fashioned father deteriorates. Language heals her, and saves her. As Ahn Joo enters womanhood, a heart-breaking secret finally sets her free to create her own heritage. This widely celebrated debut novel approaches growing up in America—whether as an immigrant or a native—from an honest, refreshingly authentic perspective.

Since the 1930s, Korean American writers have come to maintain an important place in our national literature, publishing some of the most exciting fiction of the twentieth century. The stories in this first anthology of Korean American fiction represent the very best work of these writers, including several pieces published for the first time. Contributors include Patti Kim, Chang-rae Lee, Susan Choi, Heinz Insu Fenkl, Leonard Chang, Nora Okja Keller, and Richard E. Kim.

Unlike any other book of its kind, this volume celebrates published works from a broad range of American ethnic groups not often featured in the typical canon of literature. This culturally rich encyclopedia contains 160 alphabetically arranged entries on African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American literary traditions, among others. The book introduces the uniquely American mosaic of multicultural literature by chronicling the achievements of American writers of non-European descent and highlighting the ethnic diversity of works from the colonial era to the present. The work features engaging topics like the civil rights movement, bilingualism, assimilation, and border narratives. Entries provide historical overviews of literary periods along with profiles of major authors and great works, including Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Maya Angelou, Sherman Alexie, A Raisin in the Sun, American Born Chinese, and The House on Mango Street. The book also provides concise overviews of genres not often featured in textbooks, like the Chinese American novel, African American young adult literature, Mexican American autobiography, and Cuban American poetry.

Providing comprehensive coverage of a variety of Asian American cultural forms, including folk tradition, literature, religion, education, politics, sports, and popular culture, this two-volume work is an ideal resource for students and general readers that reveals the historical, regional, and ethnic diversity within specific traditions. An invaluable reference for school and public libraries as well as academic libraries at colleges and universities, this two-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of a variety of Asian American cultural forms that enables readers to understand the history, complexity, and contemporary practices in Asian American culture. The contributed entries address the diversity of a group comprising people with geographically discrete origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, identifying the rich variations across the category of Asian American culture that are key to understanding specific cultural expressions while also pointing out some commonalities. Entries are organized alphabetically and cover topics in the arts; education and politics; family and community; gender and sexuality; history and immigration; holidays, festivals, and folk tradition; literature and culture; media, sports, and popular culture; and religion, belief, and spirituality. Entries also broadly cover Asian American origins and history, regional practices and traditions, contemporary culture, and art and other forms of shared expression. Accompanying sidebars throughout serve to highlight key individuals, major events, and significant artifacts and allow readers to better appreciate the Asian American experience.

This powerful study reconceptualizes ideas of ethnic literature while investigating the construction of ethnic heroines, shifting the focus away from cultural politics and considering instead narrative or poetic qualities which involve surprising relationships between Anglo-American women's writing and fiction produced by Asian American and African American women authors.