Waking Up American: Coming of Age Biculturally - Paperback

by Angela Jane Fountas (Editor)

Waking Up American includes original work by women who are either American-born of at least one foreign-born parent or who immigrated to the United States during childhood. The writers explore what it means to feel caught between two worlds--neither wholly American nor wholly a part of another heritage.

Cultures represented include the Philippines, Germany, India, Mexico, China, Iran, Nicaragua, Japan, Russia, and Panama, among others, and are often juxtaposed with a bicultural reality, having been raised by parents who simultaneously embrace and question American values. Essays trace themes of rebellion and conformity, pride and uncertainty, sexuality and sense of self, and a heightened awareness of what it means to be "other."

These narratives examine the part cultural identity plays in creating strong, independent, hyphenated American women whose experiences are part of what makes the United States the intriguing cultural amalgamation that so many diverse peoples are proud to call home.

Author Biography

Angela Jane Fountas is a writer and editor living in Seattle. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama in 2001 and has been teaching since 1997. Her fiction has recently appeared in Diagram, Pindeldyboz, and Syntax. Her story Lydia was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize. She is working on a short story collection.