Entries Tagged 'Literary' ↓

For 500 years immigrants from diverse cultures have sought freedom and opportunity in what is now the United States of America. The writers among them recorded their experiences in letters, journals, poems and books, from early colonial days to the present. “We are a nation of many voices,” writes Marie Arana in her essay, and that is what this eJournal USA on multicultural writing is about: to show how voices from various ethnic backgrounds have enriched American society through art and cultural sharing that invites understanding.

Newcomers may write of loneliness, like the anonymous Chinese immigrant to the “land of the Flowery Flag” who scratched a wistful poem on a barracks wall at the Angel Island Immigration Station near San Francisco, in the early 20th century:

Multicultural Literature in the United States Today

The United States is enriched culturally by immigrants from many nations. This edition of eJournal USA focuses on distinguished American writers from various ethnic backgrounds who add immeasurably to mutual understanding and appreciation through tales of their native lands and their experiences as Americans.

Click HERE to download this issue.

An Essay by Bill Schroeder

AS I watched the Political news on 11/4/08 and Obama took Pennsylvania., then shortly thereafter it was announced he had won the Presidential Election, my mind drifted back about 45 years. I had just said to my four year old daughter, “lets go to the black store.” At that time we resided in Decatur, Illinois. We lived in a chancing neighborhood across from Manker Harris, a Minister, who was working for the disadvantaged in gaining housing without racial preference. I became involved in this.

As my daughter Stephanie and I strolled hand in hand to the store, the color of the people on the walk changed from white to tan colors and light browns, then medium black, changing again to ebony with bold features the further we went. Upon entering the store we were the only whites. I asked Stephanie to pick up a loaf of bread we came to buy. She laid it on the counter and looked around at the people as I paid for the purchase. As we sauntered back home, she looked up at me and stated, “Daddy I didn’t see any colored people in the store.” Her young mind did not accept any racial overtones. She had not yet been taught to hate or discriminate. She did not see black, or white, only people. Yes we can.

The day after the election I had blood drawn for my monthly Pro-Time test. The nurse is African American. As she placed the needle into my arm and drew my blood, I was sure her blood was also red, that she wanted the same for America that I wanted. That the only difference between us was the color of our skin. I asked her if she was satisfied with the Election outcome. Tears welled up in her eyes rolling down her cheeks, as she replied her and her husband cried at the announcement. Yes we can.

I have very few regrets in my life because Nancy and I have raised three daughters who are totally and completely non prejudice as to race, sexual orientation, etc. This is my best life’s accomplishment. My only regret, over too many years, is that I did not speak up, but I remained silent many times when at gatherings around the water cooler, after work, or social function. Someone would say something or tell a joke that was defaming to females, a race, religion or concerning sexual orientation. I may not have laughed or agreed, but I said nothing over those years.

I now look forward to the day, a day I know is on the horizon, when my daughter will walk down the aisle with her female partner and my other two daughters beside her as bridesmaids. As she comes abreast of me, I will recall, with great pride, that day so long ago in Decatur, Ill. I’ll look at her and say. Yes you can. Continue reading →

The Bathroom No.4 (A Good Place to Read) has been released. Click HERE to download the Special (Day After the) Election Day Issue

by Mary Ann Eils

My great granddaughter and I attended our “Mommy and Me” swimming class today. Her mother teaches the class, so I get the honor of playing the mommy role. After an enjoyable class, we went down to the dressing room to shower and dress. When we were on our way up to the stairs, she said “G.G. (great grandmother), I can’t walk up all of these stairs, can you carry me like mommy does?

“Well, I’m getting kind of old, and you are getting kind of big, so I can’t carry you up the stairs, but I can teach you to fly up them”.

Put your arms way up and out to your side, and wave your hands and fingers as fast as you can, now start up the stairs and you’ll see how easy it is. She managed to get up all 9 stairs, and when she got to the top she called out loudly in her two year old voice. “G.G. I did it”. When we got to my daughters home, she told her grandmother that her G.G. taught her how to fly. My daughter said, “What’s next Mom, roller skating?” I’ll think about that.

What sweet memories we can make out of the simplest things . . .

Mary Ann Eils is a retired registered nurse working part time as a nursing instructor. She has been married for sixty years. Mary Ann is a mother of four, grandmother of nine, and great-grandmother of two. She enjoys writing true to life stories with a humorous touch.

by Colleen Kappeler

It was a cold, snowy February night. I drove home from UWP in tears over the stories I had just heard; stories from women who had faced huge obstacles in life and had tremendous strength within them to overcome. It was overwhelming to hear, and even more overwhelming to realize the power within each one of them at having written those stories down.

On another cold, snowy day in January (let’s face it – this is Wisconsin so there are a lot of cold, snowy days!) I sat at a restaurant by the highway telling a writer the changes I felt she needed in the book she had given me to edit. My comments were not easy to hear, and I wondered how she was taking it all in when she reached across the table, grabbed my hand, and said, “Will you be my therapist?” Continue reading →

March 03, 2008
The New Yorker has published a Fiction piece:
“Leaving for Kenosha”
by Richard Ford

Short story, set in New Orleans on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, in which a father takes his teen-age daughter to the Lower Ninth Ward to say goodbye to a classmate who is moving to Wisconsin.

“..It was the anniversary of the disaster. Walter Hobbes was on his way uptown to pick up his daughter, Louise, at Trinity. She had the dentist at four. Then the two of them were going for a hilariously early dinner at the place Louise liked—Papa Andre’s—out on the Chef Highway, a roadhouse on stilts that the flood had missed. Then they were going back to his condo for her homework and a Bill Murray movie. This was New Orleans. It was the anniversary of the disaster. Walter Hobbes was on his…”

Click HERE to read LEAVING FOR KENOSHA