Description
"Best African American Essays" is a compelling compilation of nonfiction writing on issues that are in the forefront of a national dialogue today, including pieces by and about Senator Barack Obama. Annotation: "Best African American Essays" is a compelling compilation of nonfiction writing on issues that are in the forefront of a national dialogue today, including pieces by and about Senator Barack Obama.
This exciting collection introduces the first-ever annual anthology of writing by African Americans. Here are remarkable essays on a variety of subjects informed by--but not necessarily about--the experience of blackness, as seen through the eyes of some of our finest writers. From art, entertainment, and science to technology, sexuality, and current events--including the battle for the Democratic nomination for the presidency--the essays in this inaugural anthology offer the compelling perspectives of a number of well-known, distinguished writers, among them Malcolm Gladwell, Jamaica Kincaid, James McBride, and Walter Mosley, and a number of other writers who are just beginning to be heard. Selected from a diverse array of respected publications such as the New Yorker, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Slate, and National Geographic, the essays gathered here are about making history, living everyday life--and everything in between. In Fired, author and professor Emily Bernard wrestles with the pain of a friendship inexplicably ended. Kenneth McClane writes hauntingly of the last days of his parents' lives in Driving. Journalist Brian Palmer shares The Last Thoughts of an Iraq War Embed. Jamaica Kincaid describes her oddly charged relationship with that quintessentially British, Wordsworthian flower in Dances with Daffodils, and writer Hawa Allan depicts the forces of race and rivalry as two catwalk icons face off in When Tyra Met Naomi. A venue in which African American writers can branch out from traditionally black subjects, Best African American Essays features a range of gifted voices exploring the many issues and experiences, joys and trials, that, as human beings, we all share.
This exciting collection introduces the first-ever annual anthology of writing by African Americans. Here are remarkable essays on a variety of subjects informed by--but not necessarily about--the experience of blackness, as seen through the eyes of some of our finest writers. From art, entertainment, and science to technology, sexuality, and current events--including the battle for the Democratic nomination for the presidency--the essays in this inaugural anthology offer the compelling perspectives of a number of well-known, distinguished writers, among them Malcolm Gladwell, Jamaica Kincaid, James McBride, and Walter Mosley, and a number of other writers who are just beginning to be heard. Selected from a diverse array of respected publications such as the New Yorker, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Slate, and National Geographic, the essays gathered here are about making history, living everyday life--and everything in between. In Fired, author and professor Emily Bernard wrestles with the pain of a friendship inexplicably ended. Kenneth McClane writes hauntingly of the last days of his parents' lives in Driving. Journalist Brian Palmer shares The Last Thoughts of an Iraq War Embed. Jamaica Kincaid describes her oddly charged relationship with that quintessentially British, Wordsworthian flower in Dances with Daffodils, and writer Hawa Allan depicts the forces of race and rivalry as two catwalk icons face off in When Tyra Met Naomi. A venue in which African American writers can branch out from traditionally black subjects, Best African American Essays features a range of gifted voices exploring the many issues and experiences, joys and trials, that, as human beings, we all share.