Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience [Paperback]

Chandra Prasad (Editor), Rebecca Walker (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pradsad's Outwitting the Job Market included meditations on diversity and the workplace; her choice of fiction over nonfiction for this anthology may reflect her own shifts: her novel One of the Boys is due in 2007. All of the contributors are from mixed or multiracial backgrounds; Prasad notes in her foreword that there is "some commonality" among them: "being proof of an increasingly global society, acting as the solder between various communities, straddling cultural expectations." In "Footnote," memoirist Carmit Delman (Burnt Bread and Chutney) writes of a quarter-Indian girl raised in West Virginia who takes a carnal route to discovering identity. Mat Johnson's "Gift Giving" uses the typical story of the cuckold (the author dedicates the story to an ex-fiance) to dispel numerous clichés of biracial coupledom: "The women I knew who socialized white always had some mythic white ex-boyfriend to whom no Negro could compare." In "The Caste System," Mary Yukari Waters (The Laws of Evening) sends Sarah Rexford to Japan with her grandmother for a visit to her mother's grave, and to her aunt Kimiko. There are short author bios written by the writers themselves, and thumbnail photos of each author. At the end of each of the 18 stories, the writer gives a brief description of what inspired it.
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From Booklist

Going way beyond the mythology of the tragic mulatto, this anthology of short stories by and about people of mixed racial heritage explores the complexities of multiracialism and multiculturalism. Ruth Ozeki offers a quasi-autobiographical story about the children of white anthropologists and their Asian wives; British Jamaican Lucinda Roy tells of a mixed-race professor whose authenticity as a black man is questioned; Peter Ho Davies, Welsh and Chinese, writes of a confused minotaur, the result of a mixed-species liaison; Prasad, of Italian, English, Swedish, and Indian heritage, conveys the alienation of an adolescent girl who is part-Indian, part-Russian. Other contributors include Emily Raboteau, Diana Abu-Jaber, Mat Johnson, Cristina Garcia, Wayde Compton, and Neela Vaswani. Each piece is preceded by a short biographical sketch of the writer and concludes with a commentary. This is an absorbing and thought-provoking collection of stories that explore racial identity, alienation, and people often forced to choose between races and cultures in a search for self-identity. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393327868
• ISBN-13: 978-0393327861
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hello, all! I was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and grew up in a neighboring town.
I knew from an early age, eleven or twelve, that I wanted to be an author. When I was a child, one of my favorite activities was spending quiet hours in my room writing short stories (come to think of it, that is still one of my favorite activities). I also reveled in make-believe games with my two brothers; I remember pretending to be pirates and ghostbusters and jewel thieves and deep-sea miners. Those early, fanciful imaginings no doubt gave me creative fodder for the books that I've written, and the books that I hope are still to come.

As an undergraduate at Yale University, I gravitated toward history courses, particularly the history of the U.S. during the 1930s. From a literary standpoint, the economic, cultural, and social turbulence of that era'the sense of being on the brink of vast and permanent change'appeals to me. Two of my books, Death of a Circus (Red Hen Press) and On Borrowed Wings: A Novel (Atria) are set in the '30s, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed the research almost as much as I enjoyed the writing.

I also have a strong interest in the politics of identity, perhaps stemming from my hodgepodge ethnic background. My father is from India and my mother is of Swedish, Italian, and English descent. The seemingly contradictory urge to explain my racial identity, and to get past simple, often superficial or misleading categorizations, inspired me to create Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (W.W. Norton), a book I edited and contributed to. Mixed, the first anthology of its kind, includes original pieces by acclaimed authors such as Danzy Senna, Cristina Garcia, Rebecca Walker, Mat Johnson, Ruth Ozeki, Marina Budhos, Diana Abu-Jaber, and Peter Ho Davies. It's an arresting read, and the feedback I've received can be summarized this way: if ever there was a collection of short stories that is both stunningly diverse and universally sympathetic, Mixed is it.

Having lived in New York, Arizona, and Washington, DC, I've returned to Connecticut, where I now reside with my husband, a native of Odessa, Ukraine, and our young son. In our spare time, we enjoy swinging in our backyard hammock and sharing stories. In a way, I feel like I've come full circle.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique book, well worth the money, August 28, 2006

By 

Alika Giordano - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (Paperback)

I read a couple of positive reviews for this book and decided to buy it. Previously, the only similar book I'd read was Half and Half: Writers on Growing up Biracial and Bicultural. That book was nonfiction. What I liked about Mixed is that it is comprised of only fiction, which I've always preferred to memoirs, essays, etc. Short stories are easier for me to relate to, analyze, and explore on a more personal level. I found the stories of very high literary quality (expect nothing less from W.W. Norton). One standout is Ruth Ozeki's "The Anthropologists' Kids," which addresses the theme of mixed race and culture with such acuity and nuance that the story transcends its context and becomes a universally sympathetic tale of adolescent discontent and unrequited love. Mat Johnson's "Gift Gifting" is so brazen and gritty compared to some of the other pieces that its impact is jarringly good. I also enjoyed the elegant simplicity of the pieces by Emily Raboteau and Neela Vaswani. The author's comments on their own stories are sometimes as fascinating as--or even more fascinating than--the stories themselves, as is the case with Kien Nguyen's "The Lost Sparrow." Overall, I came away from this anthology with a better sense of what the term multiracial (or "mixed") means, and how complicated, strange, and powerful a factor race continues to be in many people's lives. This is a unique book, and well worth checking out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must-read in today's increasingly multiracial society, January 2, 2007

By 

Trina Beck (New Orleans) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (Paperback)

many generations ago, someone of my racial background-- english protestant, irish catholic, scottish, and german-- might have been considered to be "mixed." today i am just considered "white." but there are a growing number of americans whose racial backgrounds defy easy categorization in the modern terminology of race. someday, they too may find themselves with a single moniker. for now, though, they struggle with multiple identities in a society that doesn't quite know where to place them. "mixed" explores the many facets of such an existence, in a diverse collection of stories that have been expertly chosen and arranged into a cohesive whole. for me, some of the standouts were the sly humor of emily raboteau's "mrs. turner's lawn jockeys," the awkward adolescence of mamle kabu's "human mathematics," the brutal reality of kien nguyen's "the lost sparrow," and editor chandra prasad's own haunting contribution, "wayward." and danzy senna's "triad"-- the same story told three times, with the protagonist's race changed for each telling-- is a brilliant conclusion to the collection. on the whole, these short stories should find an audience not only among mixed-race readers, but even among those who never have to check "other" under "ethnicity" when filling out forms.

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting reading - buy it!, January 21, 2009

By 

P. Cooper (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mixed: An Anthology of Short Fiction on the Multiracial Experience (Paperback)

I'm still reading and enjoying the short, non-fiction accounts of the people in this book. I suggest you buy it.