ENG 104Z , Intro to Fiction, Anthology, grew out of two distinct yet complementary desires:

1. 1. to provide students with an anthology of  free, open-resourced contemporary literature and
   2. to include marginalized voices across race, ethnicity, and genders.

For the first goal:  it is really  difficult to find free, open-sourced, high quality fiction written by writers who are still alive.  There’s a good reason for this:  most living writers wisely (and often desperately) hang onto the rights to their published works, in the hope of scratching out a nominal existence.  I fully support and protect all authors’ rights to every penny they can earn from their works, both in the classes I teach and in the creation of this anthology.  By including these open-sourced works, my hope  is that students will discover authors to keep reading and eventually–joy of joys–purchase the books once they are fully employed citizens with cash to burn.  Or maybe my students will discover a love of reading and use public libraries the rest of their lives.  Either  one is a win!

For the second goal: there’s no  denying the ability of great literature to transcend boundaries of nationality, race, gender, age and pretty much any other identity.  While Hemingway doesn’t do much for my students, they love Norman Maclean and Raymond Carver.  “Babylon Revisited” breaks their hearts.  Tim O’Brien causes them to rethink military recruitment posters. At the same time, there’s also no denying the huge, affirming appeal of reading about someone–fictive or non-fictive–who looks and talks and lives the way you do.  This is especially important for community college students who have been told or sensed or fear that they are not “college material.”  To encounter characters in literature that share their identity, whatever it is, can be transformative.

These days fewer than 40% of my students identify as male.  Of those who do, at least 25% are non-Caucasian;  20% have one or more disabilities; over half are poor; and many identify as LGBTQ+.   Even rudimentary math reveals that the works in most fiction anthologies fail to represent the backgrounds, lived experiences and futures of the vast majority of my students.

My students dive deep into characters who struggle with racism; whose parents work as maids or fruit pickers;  whose children venture out on the streets wondering if they will come back. They find access through  authors who aren’t afraid to use their first language, who find strength in voicing their vulnerability. All of my students learn when James Baldwin’s character Sonny plays the blues.  We all come together recognizing that not everyone’s  brain works  in the same way…and  accept how wonderful that can be.

So here it is:  my  attempt to collate a few modern-to-contemporary, diverse, accessible works of fiction that include and illuminate voices that need to be heard.

A few notes:

• Many of these works are drawn from websites that may not remain viable in perpetuity.
• Many individual works are part of much larger open sources, such as reading lists, literary magazines and other OERS.  I have identified these and encourage any reader to explore further and perhaps expand this anthology, which is truly a work on progress.
• I did not include works found in E-books  from my community or college library, but e-books can be an excellent source of contemporary, diverse literature (depending, that is, on your geo-political location).
• I consider this anthology to be the beginning of a dynamic collaboration.  Make it your own, add and subtract to the offers,  and share it with others.

Let’s converse and collaborate over our mutual love of literature and all that it can do!