Dynamic as the state itself, "California Uncovered" blends the fresh new voices of this state - names like Khaled Hosseini, author of "The Kite Runner," and l? thi diem thœy, author of "The Gangster We Are All Looking For" - with established California writers such as Joan Didion and Richard Rodriguez.
This collection of short stories, novel excerpts, poems and interviews will be a centerpiece of the California Council for the Humanities' "California Stories Uncovered" campaign, starting next month.
A follow-up to their enormously successful one-state, one-book campaign of 2002, wherein the entire state of California was reading "The Grapes of Wrath," the California Stories Uncovered program will involve people of all ages and walks of life to listen and to share their own stories of what it means to be Californian.
Individually, the stories here are startling and engaging. Absent are the reductionist symbols and stereotypes of California; in their place are compelling tales from real Californians about the changing face of the state.
Published by the California Council for the Humanities and Heyday Books, readers are ainvited to delve into these stories and use them as a springboard for their own discussion of "our shifting collective identity."
The book features the following writers: Paul Beatty, Joan Didion, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Laila Halaby, Robert Hass, Khaled Hosseini, James D. Houston, Robinson Jeffers, Francisco JimÎnez, Dana Johnson, Maxine Hong Kingston, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, RubÎn Mart’nez, David Mas Masumoto, Yxta Maya Murray, James Quay, Luis J. Rodriguez, Richard Rodriguez, Brian Ascalon Roley, Greg Sarris, Gary Soto, John Steinbeck, Dao Strom, l? thi diem thœy and D.J. Waldie.
The book is edited by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, William E. Justice and James Quay.
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