American Woman - 9781609804084

Is it possible to enter into a new place without surrendering your old self and all that defines it? Having immigrated to the United States at all stages of life and from countries around the world, the women in this extraordinary collection explore this question of definition and language: the language of longing, of romance, of estrangement. Containing additional essays since it was first published in 2000 as Becoming American, American Woman holds a renewed urgency after a long decade of walls and wars, and speaks to all our engaged citizenry with quiet wisdom.

"This is a book that creates a community of shared experiences among all of us who have come from somewhere else. . . . The insights, anecdotes, stories will make any reader who has ever felt out of place feel that a deeper bond unites us all, no matter where we are from. [A] funny, heart-touching, important book."--Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Contributors include Nina Barragan (Argentina), Lilianet Brintrup (Chile), Veronica Chambers (Panama), Judith Ortiz Cofer (Puerto Rico), Edwidge Danticat (Haiti), Gabrielle Donnelly (England), Lynn Freed (South Africa), Akuyoe Graham (Ghana), Lucy Grealy (Ireland), Suheir Hammad (Jordan/Palestine), Ginu Kamani (India), Nola Kambanda (Burund/Rwanda), Helen Kim (Korea), Helie Lee (Korea), Kyoko Mori (Japan), Irina Reyn (Russia), Nelly Rosario (Dominican Republic), Ute Margaret Saine (Germany), Rosanne Katon-Walden (Jamaica), Annette Gallagher Weisman (Ireland), Mitsuye Yamada (Japan), Belle Yang (China), Joyce Zonana (Egypt), and many more.