SO JAZZED THAT American writers of more hues and cultures are winning wide recognition and critical acclaim, including Junot Diaz, Dinaw Mengestu, Krys Lee, and others who are eroding borders and shaping a new fictional language. They represent a new generation of global urban writers who speak with much flava and authenticity. They're the progeny of Sandra Cisneros and Salman Rushdie and Chinua Achebe. A polyglot, mulatto, mashed-up crew of young writers who reflect a dynamic world spirit that only will grow. No brush-painting in that cloying, annoying, colonial voice that old-school publishers loved to court. Are modern-day demographics, cultures and commerce finally converging, creating what journalist Guy Garcia has called the "new mainstream"? Will "ethnic lit" no longer be ghettoized? Are outsiders the new insiders? Is exotic the new norm? Are the "other" now us? And can we stop using the word diaspora? For those who yearn for more literature of all shades, we've been waiting a lifetime for the rise of the next-gen global literati. I have no doubt that we're at the cusp of a new cultural ethos.
"Junot Diaz" by Christopher Peterson, via Creative Commons license on Wikimedia Commons.
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