Description
Product Description
“A delight and highly recommended.” —
Booklist
“Showcases the truth and fullness of people of color.” —Book Riot
In the tradition of
Best American Short Stories comes
Everyday People: The Color of Life, a dazzling collection of contemporary short fiction.
Everyday People is a thoughtfully curated anthology of short stories that presents new and renowned work by established and emerging writers of color. It illustrates the dynamics of character and culture that reflect familial strife, political conflict, and personal turmoil through an array of stories that reveal the depth of the human experience.
Representing a wide range of styles, themes, and perspectives, these selected stories depict moments that linger—crossroads to be navigated, relationships, epiphanies, and times of doubt, loss, and discovery. A celebration of writing and expression,
Everyday People brings to light the rich tapestry that binds us all.
The contributors are an eclectic mix of award-winning and critically lauded writers, including Mia Alvar, Carleigh Baker, Nana Brew-Hammond, Glendaliz Camacho, Alexander Chee, Mitchell S. Jackson, Yiyun Li, Allison Mills, Courttia Newland, Dennis Norris II, Jason Reynolds, Nelly Rosario, Hasanthika Sirisena, and Brandon Taylor.
Some of the proceeds from the sale of
Everyday People will benefit the Rhode Island Writers Colony, a nonprofit organization founded by the late Brook Stephenson that provides space for speculation, production, and experimentation by writers of color.
Review
"An excellent sampling of some of the most exciting voices in literature from the past two decades and beyond that will leave readers with plenty of authors to revisit or discover."--
Publishers Weekly
"A vital, riveting anthology that emphasizes the complexity and diversity of minority experience."--
Kirkus
About the Author
Jennifer Baker is a publishing professional, the creator and host of the
Minorities in Publishing podcast, and a contributing editor to
Electric Literature. She also works with the nonprofit I, Too Arts Collective. She is a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow and Queens Council of the Arts New Work Grant winner. Her writing has appeared in
Newtown Literary, where her story was nominated for a Pushcart Prize;
Poets & Writers magazine; the
Other Stories podcast;
The Offing; and
The Female Complaint anthology from Shade Mountain Press.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Everyday People
INTRODUCTION
For a while I had this long-standing joke that when Black babies are born they are smacked to encourage their first cry of life, swathed, and placed on the bosom of the person who brought them into this world, and then they’re handed a copy of The Black Poets, edited by Dudley Randall. The Black Poets was the quintessential book I’d see on the shelves of my fellow Black writer friends. If you were into literature, especially poetry, as an African American, then you had to have this book. It verified your commitment to the cause and for the culture. If you don’t have it, why not? How will you learn about those who came before us? Where we’re going and where we’ve been? No shade, but I have my copy. Whether I got the book soon after coming into the world or not, I cannot say.
There are other seminal anthologies used for study and inspiration, such as The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction or E. Lynn Harris and Marita Golden’s Gumbo, a celebration of African American voices. I’d like to think that Everyday People: The Color of Life—A Short Story Anthology will be that type of book over time. On shelves not only for reference but for pleasure, a book housing short fiction from an array of wonderful contemporary writers both established and emerging that speaks to experience, loss, fulfillment, and also being at that fork in the road where decisions must be made yet are not always pursued due to failings of moral fortitude. Each story will always s