Literary Works

Overview

The following is a list of literary works we will study throughout the semester. All sources are provided in the context of the class; however, if you would like to read physical copies of some of the material or find them before the class begins, I suggest hunting the following down in a library or book store or conducting simple Internet searches for possible online copies:

Short Stories

Look for the following short stories in any anthology:

• "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver

• "Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros

• "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin

• "Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor

Poems

The following poems are grouped thematically. You will not need to read them all, so explore freely and choose as interest dictates. Many of the following can be found through an online search or specifically at Poetry Foundation: 

• "The Tyger" by William Blake, 1794

• "Snake" by D. H. Lawrence, 1913

• "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop, 1946

• "To Help the Monkey Cross the River" by Thomas Lux, 2004

• "Clam Ode" by Dean Young, 2005

• "Commitments" by Essex Hemphill, 1992

• "Who Said It Was Simple" by Audre Lorde

• "Two Small-Sized Girls" by Minnie Bruce Pratt, 1990

• "My Transvestite Uncle Is Missing by Rane Arroyo, 1996

• "Grandfather at the Indian Health Clinic" by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, 1983

• "Legacies" by Nikki Giovanni, 1972

• "Heritage" by Linda Hogan, 1978

• "Behind Grandma's House" by Gary Soto, 1985

• "Mi Abuelo" by Alberto Rios, 1990

• "Refugee Ship" by Lorna Dee Cervantes, 1981

• "Claims" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, 1987

• "Incident" by Countee Cullen, 1925

• "Incident" by Natasha Trethewey, 2006

• "forgiving my father" by Lucille Clifton, 1980

• "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, 1962

• "My Papa’s Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, 1948

• "My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud" by Li-Young Lee, 1990

• "Today Was a Bad Day like TB" by Chrystos, 1988

• "Dear John Wayne" by Louise Erdrich, 1984

• "In Response to Executive Order 9066" by Dwight Okita, 1984

• "Pigeons" by David Hernandez, 1991

• "Legal Alien" by Pat Mora, 1984

• "Black Boys Play the Classics" by Toi Derricotte, 1997

• "Blood" by Naomi Shihab Nye, 1986

Play

Any version of the following play will do. The following is freely available online: Beyond the free version I provide, here is a print suggestion:

• A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen on Project Gutenberg

​Creative Nonfiction

I have collected database or online versions of many of the essays found in the following excellent anthology. If you enjoy print books, I recommend buying an affordable used copy: 

• Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present, 1st Edition, by Lex Williford and Michael Martone. 

This complete book is available as an ebook through the Cerro Coso Library, but viewing is limited to three viewings at a time, 25 pages of print/email/save.