Seventy-one African-American writers donate their talent to benefit
the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Veteran editor Golden (The Edge of
Heaven, 1998, etc.), president and founding director of
Hurston/Wright, writes that "The African American writer has, of
necessity, been visionary and witness, a channel for an individual
sense of story even while recognizing that for Black people in
America, writing is fighting." Although many, if not all, other
races would argue that writing is fighting for them as well, Golden
is still right. But if in a collection benefiting the foundation
named for Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston you think you might
get to read works by them, think again. They're missing, as are
Toni Morrison, James McPherson, and Charles Johnson-in fact, a list
of prominent writers who are absent may be more impressive than one
of those present. But not to worry: both of the editors, Golden and
Harris (Not a Day Goes By, 2000), are represented. A sampling of
these sometimes new, sometimes previously published tales also
includes Edwidge Danticat's "The Dew Breaker," about an immigrant
family who attends Christmas Eve mass but finds America wasteful,
faithless, and full of unlikely coincidence; in David Haynes' "Your
Child can be a Model," we meet a young black mother on the occasion
of her son's expulsion from school, then follow her as she works to
get him out of trouble; John Edgar Wideman, in "Weight," straddles
the line between fiction and nonfiction in a poignant homage to his
mother; Tayari Jones contributes a section from her recently
published novel, Leaving Atlanta (p. 830), about a series of
murders of African-American children in Georgia; and voice rules in
J. California Cooper's "$100 and Nothing!," a neighbor's account of
a good marriage gone bad. Much to admire, though feathers may be
ruffled (how can "gumbo" be a unifying image for a race that has
gone far beyond the cultural reach of it or any other individual
thing?). Still, a comprehensive look at middle-brow
African-American literature. (Kirkus Reviews)
A literary rent party to benefit the Hurston/Wright Foundation of African-American fiction, with selections to savor from bestselling authors as well as talented rising stars.
Not since Terry McMillan’s Breaking Ice have so many African-American writers been brought together in one volume. A stellar collection of works from more than fifty hot names in fiction, Gumbo represents remarkable synergy. Edited by bestselling luminaries Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris, this collection spans new and previously published tales of love and luck, inspiration and violation, hip new worlds and hallowed heritage from voices such as:
• Edwidge Danticat
• Eric Jerome Dickey
• Kenji Jasper
• John Edgar Wideman
• Terry McMillan
• David Anthony Durham
• Bertice Berry
…and many, many more
Also featuring original stories by Golden and Harris themselves, Gumbo heralds the debut of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards for Published Black Writers (scheduled for October 2002), and all advances and royalties from the book will support the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Combining authors with a variety of flavorful writing, Gumbo will have readers clamoring for second helpings.
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