CHARACTERISTICS: Multicultural fiction's primary characteristic is a minority character or group's perspective. Typically the main characters are members of a minority group; mere inclusion of secondary characters who belong to a minority group does not qualify a novel as a work of multicultural fiction. Groups such as African Americans, Asian Americans, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered, Hispanic Americans/Latinos, Jewish Americans, Native Americans, and other cultures are included in multicultural fiction. Since multicultural fiction includes various genres, it is as diverse in style as it is in characters' perspectives.
APPEAL: Readers belonging to a particular culture identify with the cultural backdrop of the story and appreciate the validation of their experience. Readers outside the culture represented in a novel can gain an understanding of the lives and cultures of their neighbors.
READERS: Readers of multicultural fiction include people of all backgrounds and ages. As mentioned above, readers may be drawn to multicultural fiction for its familiarity to their own experience or for its power to introduce them to other viewpoints. Literary fiction written from a particular cultural viewpoint often introduces the theme of cultural differences within society, which can make these novels excellent choices for book discussions. Readers of a particular genre often read multicultural fiction within that genre.
SUBGENRES: Rather than dividing into subgenres, multicultural fiction instead includes all genres and styles, including adventure, fantasy, gentle reads, historical fiction, horror, literary fiction, mystery, romance, science fiction, suspense/thrillers, and women's fiction.
TOP AUTHORS: African American: Toni Morrison; Asian American: Amy Tan; Gay and Lesbian: Armistead Maupin; Hispanic American: Julia Alvarez
TRENDS: The major trend is that multicultural literature has, to a great extent, gone mainstream. Multicultural novels appear on the bestseller lists, win mainstream literary awards, and are considered mainstream fiction by some readers.
REFERENCE BOOKS:
Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson. Greenwood Press, 1993.
Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, edited by Joel Shatzky and Michael Taub. Greenwood Press, 1997.
Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Sandra Pollack and Denise D. Knight. Greenwood Press, 1993.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature. Edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson. Greenwood, 2005.
What Do I Read Next?: Multicultural Literature: African American, Asian American, Latino, Native American. Gale Research, 1997.
PUBLISHERS: While the work of most well-known authors of multicultural literature is published today by mainstream publishers, many small independent presses focus on specific cultures or regions. Often these small presses focus on nonfiction, rather than fiction, books.
MAGAZINES: MultiCultural Review, the official publication of the Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table of the American Library Association, includes book reviews and articles.
ORGANIZATIONS:
American Indian Library Association
Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association
Black Caucus of the American Library Association
Chinese American Librarians Association
Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table of the American Library Association
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table of the American Library Association
Native Writers� Circle of the Americas
REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking
AWARDS:
Asian American Literary Award
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Awards
International Latino Book Awards
Lambda Literary Awards
National Jewish Book Awards
Native Writers� Circle of the Americas Awards
Stonewall Book Awards
Prepared by Stacey Cisneros
September 2007
