It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art

by Richard Russo, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman, Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark

Overview

In time for the one-year anniversary of the Trump Inauguration and the Women’s March, this provocative, unprecedented anthology features original short stories from thirty bestselling and award-winning authors—including Alice Walker, Richard Russo, Walter Mosley, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Hoffman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Cunningham, Mary Higgins Clark, and Lee Child—with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen.

When Donald Trump claimed victory last November, the US literary world erupted in indignation. Many of America’s leading writers and artists openly resist the current administration’s dogma and earliest policy moves, and they’re not about to go gently into that good night. In It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art, more than thirty of the most acclaimed modern writers consider the fundamental ideals of a free, just, and compassionate democracy—through fiction.

Featuring artwork by some of today’s best known artists, cartoonists, and graphic novelists—including Art Spiegelman, Roz Chast, Marilyn Minter, and Eric Fischl—who cover political, social, and cultural issues, this anthology is a beautiful, enduring collection that will resonate with anyone concerned with the contest for our American soul.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501179600
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	01/16/2018
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Introduced by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and edited by writer and artist Jonathan Santlofer, It Occurs to Me That I Am America includes contributions from Mary Higgins Clark, Lee Child, Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Richard Russo, Alice Hoffman, Elizabeth Strout, Louise Erdrich, Walter Mosley, Julia Alvarez, Michael Cunningham, Art Spiegelman, Sara Paretsky, Alice Walker, Stephen L. Carter, Paul Theroux, Susan Isaacs, Ha Jin, Russell Banks, Lily King, Elinor Lipman, Heidi Pitlor, Roz Chast, Susan Minot, Joyce Maynard, Philip Gourevitch, S.J. Rozan, Edmund White, Gish Jen, Tom Piazza, Justin Torres, Angela Flournoy, Sheila Kohler, Bliss Broyard, Elizabeth Frank, James Hannaham, Mark Di Ionno, Eric Fischl, Mimi Pond, Anna Dunn, Jonathan Santlofer, Susan Crile, Bridget Hawkins, Deborah Kass, Jane Kent, Beverly McIver, Marilyn Minter, Eric Orner, Shahzia Sikander, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and David Storey.

Hometown:

Gloversville, New York

Date of Birth:

July 15, 1949

Place of Birth:

Johnstown, New York

Education:

B.A., University of Arizona, 1967; Ph.D., University of Arizona, 1979; M.F.A., University of Arizona, 1980

Read an Excerpt

It Occurs to Me That I Am America
I am a writer, and like all writers, I believe in the power of stories. My first love was literature, especially fiction, and so I was thrilled when I was invited to write a few words to introduce this anthology, which is about the power of fiction to shape and to state who we are.

I have a daily reminder of fiction’s enduring magic, delivered to me by my son. He is four years old. Every morning and evening I read to him. I love the joy he takes in learning new words, immersing himself in stories, seeing himself as the characters, and acquiring a moral and ethical sense. He lives in a fictional world of good and bad, of threat and rescue, of the choice between doing good and doing harm.

When I was his age, I had just arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was 1975. I was a refugee and the child of refugees who had fled Vietnam. My parents had neither the time nor the ability to read to me in English. So I took refuge in the local public library. It became my safe space and books my constant companions.

I imagined myself amid the wonders of Manhattan, the bucolic splendor of midwestern farms, the stirring and dreadful times of the American Revolution and Civil War. Even if there was no one who looked like me or had a name like mine, through these stories, I became an American.

As I remembered this during our most recent presidential election, what became clear to me was that the contest for our American identity isn’t strictly a political affair. It is also a matter of storytelling. Those who seek to lead our country must persuade the people through their ability to tell a story about who we are, where we have been and where we are going. The struggle over the direction of our country is also a fight over whose words will win and whose images will ignite the collective imagination.

Donald J. Trump won barely, and by the grace of the Electoral College. His voters responded to his call to “Make America Great Again,” referring to a past when jobs were more plentiful, incomes more stable and politicians more bold.

That kind of nostalgia is powerful and visceral, but it’s hard to ignore the subtext. America of the golden age, if it ever existed, kept women out of the workplace, segregated and exploited minorities and restricted immigration by race.

It’s hardly surprising that the population of much of the literary world is terrified by Mr. Trump’s vision of good versus evil, us against them. At the ceremonies for the National Book Awards and Dayton Literary Peace Prizes of 2017, most of the speeches proclaimed opposition to the values that Mr. Trump espoused.

That opposition isn’t just political but literary: his story contradicts the idea of literature itself. Great literature cannot exist if it is based on hate, fear, division, exclusion, scapegoating, or the use of injustice. Bad literature and demagogues, on the other hand, exploit these very things, and they do so through telling the kinds of demonizing stories good literary writers reject.

The cast of the Broadway musical Hamilton sought to remind then vice president elect Mike Pence of this when he attended the show soon after the election. They implored him directly to defend American diversity. When an offended Mr. Trump tweeted that the theater “must always be a safe and special place,” he missed their point: America itself should be a safe and special place.

Part of the fault is ours; too many writers are removed from the world of our readers. After my novel The Sympathizer was published, I would get letters from people who accused me of being “ungrateful” to the United States. The places where the book was most popular were the Northeast, West Coast and big cities. A vast section of rural Americans in the Deep South, heartland and North were not buying the book.

The day before the presidential election, an obscure novelist attacked me on Twitter. I was “NOT an American author (born in Vietnam).” As for my Pulitzer, it was “An American prize that shuns the real America. We long for the Great American Novel. When?”

Despite that criticism, this election reminds me of the necessity of my vocation. Good writers cannot write honestly if they are incapable of imagining what it is that another feels, thinks and sees. Through identifying with characters and people who are nothing like us, through destroying the walls between ourselves and others, the people who love words—both writers and readers—strive to understand others and break down the boundaries that separate us.

It’s an ethos summed up by the novelist Colson Whitehead in his acceptance speech at the National Book Awards for his novel The Underground Railroad: “Be kind to everybody. Make art. And fight the power.”

Fighting the power is what the American Civil Liberties Union has done for nearly one hundred years. I am proud that one of my Berkeley classmates, Cecillia Wang, is a deputy legal director for the ACLU. She was an English major, like me, and it is no coincidence that the love of literature has some relationship to the love of justice and liberty. Such love is not partisan, but is a matter of principle, which is why the ACLU has worked with and battled against American presidents of both parties to ensure that our country makes good on its founding premise as the land of the free.

After election night, during which my partner, my graduate students and I drank two bottles of Scotch, I renewed my commitment to fight for freedom and to fight the power. That was always my mission. I was thinking of it when I named my son Ellison, after the novelist Ralph Waldo Ellison, himself named after the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Making my son a part of this lineage, I wanted him to understand the basic paradox at the heart of literature and philosophy: even as each of us is solitary as a reader or a writer, we are reminded of our shared humanity and our inhumanity.

My son need not become a writer, but he will become a storyteller. We are all storytellers of our own lives, of our American identities. I want my son to rise to the challenge of fighting to determine which stories will define our America. That’s the choice between building walls and opening hearts. Rather than making America great again, we should help America love again. This is what the writers and artists in this collection do, through their insistence that each of us is a part of America.

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Table of Contents

Foreword Jonathan Santlofer xiii

Introduction Viet Thanh Nguyen xvii

Speak! Speak! Julia Alvarez 1

Oh, Canada Russell Banks 7

Blackout Jane Kent

The Party Bliss Broyard 17

Compline Stephen L. Carter 31

Scenes from Late Paradise: Stupidity Eric Fischl

Late America Eric Fischl

New Blank Document Lee Child 67

Tell Her Anyway Bridget Hawkins

Veterans Day Mary Higgins Clark 77

Atonement Michael Cunningham 81

Intersections Mark Di Ionno 87

The Third Twin Anna Dunn 103

Politics Roz Chast

Balancing Acts Louise Erdrich 113

The Miss April Houses Angela Flournoy 117

The World Is Yours, the World Is Mine Shahzia Sikander

The Many Faces of Islam Shahzia Sikander

Fires Elizabeth Frank 125

Hate for Sale Neil Gaiman 143

Unaccountable Philip Gourevitch 145

White Baby James Hannaham 153

Your Sacred American Rights Bingo Mimi Pond

In the Trees Alice Hoffman 157

Getting Somewhere Susan Isaacs 163

Guantánamo, ERF Team: Mating Prisoner in Eye (detail) Susan Crile

Guantánamo, ERF Team: Waterboarding Prisoner Susan Crile

Mr. Crime and Punishment and War and Peace Gish Jen 173

Finally I Am American at Heart Ha Jin 183

Arlington Street Lily King 191

The Harlot and the Murderer: Soma's Story Sheila Kohler 199

Starry Starry Night Jaune Quick-To-See Smith

Trade Canoe: Forty Days and Forty Nights Jaune Quick-To-See Smith

"People Are People" Elinor Lipman 215

The Trout Fisherman Joyce Maynard 219

Listen Susan Minot 223

Between Storms Walter Mosley 231

Our Cuntry Needs You Marilyn Minter

Tic-Tac-Toe Marilyn Minter

Deep Frost Marilyn Minter

"Good News!" Joyce Carol Oates 247

Island of Tears… Art Spiegelman

Island of Hope! Art Spiegelman

Ghost of Ellis Island Art Spiegelman

Safety First Sara Paretsky 263

Look Away Beverly McIver

Loving in Black & White Beverly McIver

Bystanders (April 2003) Tom Piazza 277

Lucky Girl Heidi Pitlor 287

If They Come in the Morning S.J. Rozan 303

Top Step Richard Russo 311

The Ugliest American Alphabet Eric Orner

Hope Jonathan Santlofer 317

The Walk Elizabeth Strout 325

Vote Hillary Deborah Kass

Stop & Shop Paul Theroux 333

Little House on the Prairie Holding Company LLC David Storey

The Way We Read Now Justin Torres 349

Don't Despair Alice Walker 355

Learning American Values Edmund White 359

Letter from Anthony D. Romero 367

Acknowledgments 369

Permissions 373

Editorial Reviews

On its own, this chorus of brilliant voices articulating the shape and texture of contemporary America makes for necessary reading; that this collection also supports the ACLU, the fiercest and most noble defender of our freedoms, makes it urgent as hell.

LAUREN GROFF

What a remarkable thing, to see so many names, from all over the world, giving voice to our collective story. It inspires awe and hope, like America itself.

JOHN KENNEY

At this time in our history, it is imperative that the narratives we put forward illuminate rather than confound, elevate rather than suppress, and embrace rather than isolate. This dazzling volume of talented artists and writers, like the ACLU that it supports, does just that.

ADAM D. WEINBERG

A visceral reminder that storytelling gives us the opportunity to change our minds about strangers, and thus is an essential tool for re-teaching empathy to a nation that is trying—and hopefully, failing—to live with a closed heart.

COURTNEY MAUM

Of course, not all American literature tells a tale of grace and justice. But what the best stories do have in common is their faithfulness to the deepest truths, compelling us to see our world as it is now, in all its imperfections, or else showing us what it could look like, redeemed. These artists and writers continue that grand tradition and, in this incredible volume, do so in support of our best values: the pursuit of civil liberties, the freedom to create, and the chance to live the lives we choose. It Occurs to Me That I Am America is a battle cry: We will not be silenced.

MATTIE KAHN

An anthology that celebrates the radical freedom of the imagination, and the power of art to redraw the lines of our shared reality.

KAREN RUSSELL author of Swamplandia! and St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

If literature is ‘news that stays news’, how often do we get to see it blaze out like this, as an audacious rebuke to the headlines? These writers will help you feel proud to live in this country again.

JONATHAN LETHEM

We are both thrilled and humbled to see that so many great writers and artists have come together to support the ACLU as we confront the greatest civil liberties crisis of our time. History has shown the crucial role artists play in challenging injustice during times of crisis. This anthology promises to be both a powerful tool in the fight to uphold our values and a tribute to the remarkable voices behind it.”

Anthony D. Romero

"A terrific collection of short stories and art, which you will enjoy reading even more because the book supports the ACLU. Needed now more than ever."

DICK CAVETT

It’s bracing to see such a remarkable and gifted group of writers come together in support of civil liberties and American ideals at this particularly troubling time in our history.

JULIE OTSUKA

Hooray for the warty, flawed, wondrously and painfully nuanced life experience that is America! A spectacular assemblage of inspired art and thought-provoking prose, at a time when we all need to be reminded of the power of story, the urgency of the current political moment, and the precious and often precarious nature of our democracy and our civil liberties.

DENISE KIERNAN

It Occurs to Me That I Am America is a masterful literary achievement, one that should enter the pantheon of great books. More than a collection of fine works by some of our country’s most accomplished and talented writers and artists, it is a telling reflection of the America we have become in these troubled times and communicates a hope for the American we can be. For a nation consumed by anger and blindness, it is a critical salve to remind us all of what it means to be an American. And it should be required reading for future generations, so that the knowledge of who we are is never again forgotten.

KURT EICHENWALD

There is a pitch battle in progress for the soul of our country. The writers and artists in this anthology represent a wide spectrum of views but each speaks for and to our better nature and to a vision of the United States in which all can thrive in a moment of crisis when others seek to reduce us to the worst possible, most exclusive view of our collective capacities. Their contributions are patriotism in practice. Reading and looking at their work we have reason to take heart and fight harder when the stakes could hardly be higher.

ROBERT STORR

When the fundamental values of our country are under attack, writers and artists pick up their pens, head to their computers, and write brilliant pieces that demonstrate the joys of our differences and the power of our shared humanity. This book entertains, charms, and supports the ACLU. I can’t think of a more delightful purchase.

JANE ISAY

This book is filled with powerful writers articulating what they care about so deeply: our country, depicted here with beauty and emergency. I hope many, many people read this book and help support democracy in this urgent moment.

MEG WOLITZER

I can't think of a better act of #resistance than an anthology that brings together some of America's fiercest fiction writers and visual artists to reclaim our country—and our flag—from the fever dream of Trumpism. Its glories, to quote Walt Whitman, are ‘strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings.’ Read it and feel renewed.

BENJAMIN ANASTAS

We are both thrilled and humbled to see that so many great writers and artists have come together to support the ACLU as we confront the greatest civil liberties crisis of our time. History has shown the crucial role artists play in challenging injustice during times of crisis. This anthology promises to be both a powerful tool in the fight to uphold our values and a tribute to the remarkable voices behind it.” 

                                                                                         

—Anthony D. Romero

What a remarkable thing, to see so many names, from all over the world, giving voice to our collective story. It inspires awe and hope, like America itself.

—JOHN KENNEY

There is a pitch battle in progress for the soul of our country. The writers and artists in this anthology represent a wide spectrum of views but each speaks for and to our better nature and to a vision of the United States in which all can thrive in a moment of crisis when others seek to reduce us to the worst possible, most exclusive view of our collective capacities. Their contributions are patriotism in practice. Reading and looking at their work we have reason to take heart and fight harder when the stakes could hardly be higher.

—ROBERT STORR

It’s bracing to see such a remarkable and gifted group of writers come together in support of civil liberties and American ideals at this particularly troubling time in our history.”    

—JULIE OTSUKA

Hooray for the warty, flawed, wondrously and painfully nuanced life experience that is America! A spectacular assemblage of inspired art and thought-provoking prose, at a time when we all need to be reminded of the power of story, the urgency of the current political moment, and the precious and often precarious nature of our democracy and our civil liberties.

—DENISE KIERNAN

This book is filled with powerful writers articulating what they care about so deeply: our country, depicted here with beauty and emergency. I hope many, many people read this book and help support democracy in this urgent moment.

—MEG WOLITZER

On its own, this chorus of brilliant voices articulating the shape and texture of contemporary America makes for necessary reading; that this collection also supports the ACLU, the fiercest and most noble defender of our freedoms, makes it urgent as hell.”  

—LAUREN GROFF

If literature is ‘news that stays news’, how often do we get to see it blaze out like this, as an audacious rebuke to the headlines? These writers will help you feel proud to live in this country again.

—JONATHAN LETHEM

When the fundamental values of our country are under attack, writers and artists pick up their pens, head to their computers, and write brilliant pieces that demonstrate the joys of our differences and the power of our shared humanity. This book entertains, charms, and supports the ACLU. I can’t think of a more delightful purchase.

—JANE ISAY

An anthology that celebrates the radical freedom of the imagination, and the power of art to redraw the lines of our shared reality.

—KAREN RUSSELL author of Swamplandia! and St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

At this time in our history, it is imperative that the narratives we put forward illuminate rather than confound, elevate rather than suppress, and embrace rather than isolate. This dazzling volume of talented artists and writers, like the ACLU that it supports, does just that.

—ADAM D. WEINBERG

I can't think of a better act of #resistance than an anthology that brings together some of America's fiercest fiction writers and visual artists to reclaim our country—and our flag—from the fever dream of Trumpism. Its glories, to quote Walt Whitman, are ‘strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings.’ Read it and feel renewed.

—BENJAMIN ANASTAS

It Occurs to Me That I Am America is a masterful literary achievement, one that should enter the pantheon of great books. More than a collection of fine works by some of our country’s most accomplished and talented writers and artists, it is a telling reflection of the America we have become in these troubled times and communicates a hope for the American we can be. For a nation consumed by anger and blindness, it is a critical salve to remind us all of what it means to be an American. And it should be required reading for future generations, so that the knowledge of who we are is never again forgotten.

—KURT EICHENWALD

A visceral reminder that storytelling gives us the opportunity to change our minds about strangers, and thus is an essential tool for re-teaching empathy to a nation that is trying—and hopefully, failing—to live with a closed heart.” 

—COURTNEY MAUM

"A terrific collection of short stories and art, which you will enjoy reading even more because the book supports the ACLU.  Needed now more than ever."

—DICK CAVETT

Of course, not all American literature tells a tale of grace and justice. But what the best stories do have in common is their faithfulness to the deepest truths, compelling us to see our world as it is now, in all its imperfections, or else showing us what it could look like, redeemed. These artists and writers continue that grand tradition and, in this incredible volume, do so in support of our best values: the pursuit of civil liberties, the freedom to create, and the chance to live the lives we choose. It Occurs to Me That I Am America is a battle cry: We will not be silenced.

—MATTIE KAHN