The Chalk Circle: Intercultural Prizewinning Essays

ISBN: 978-1-936214-71-6
220 Pages, 5 x 8
$14.95 Paperback
Pub Date: Spring 2012

SILVER WINNER Benjamin Franklin Award

SILVER WINNER ForeWord Book-of-the-Year

WINNER Skipping Stones Honor Award

RUNNER-UP New England Book Festival Awards

"Refugee students coming to … American resettlement cities have encountered incredible danger and deprivation to arrive. Once they arrive the struggle continues to find good jobs and housing, face down bigotry, and keep the family intact. [T]here are few texts to help them articulate and transcend their experiences. This contemporary collection of essays will be an invaluable resource. I'm especially impressed by the range of themes."

Mary Mclaughlin Slechta, ESL instructor, Nottingham High School


Tara Masih

Tara L. Masih received a BA in English and a minor in sociology from C. W. Post College, and an MA in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College (where she taught Freshman Composition and Grammar). She is editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (a ForeWord Book of the Year), and her debut story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, was a National Best Books Awards finalist. Tara has published fiction, poetry, and essays in numerous anthologies and literary magazines (such as Confrontation, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, New Millennium Writings, The Pedestal, Night Train, and The Caribbean Writer), and her essays have been read on NPR and anthologized in numerous textbooks.

TaraMasih.com

Sell Sheet

INSTRUCTORS: Request a digital desk copy from the publisher. Order discounted copies through your college bookstore.

Currently in use at: Columbia Univ., Rutgers-Newark, Salem State Univ., Tiffin Univ., Lesley Univ., DePauw Univ.,
UCLA, Syracuse Univ., North Seattle Community College

 

Award-winning editor Tara L. Masih put out a call in 2007 for Intercultural Essays dealing with the subjects of  “culture, race, and a sense of place.” The prizewinners are gathered for the first time in a ground-breaking anthology that explores many facets of culture not previously found under one cover. The powerful, honest, thoughtful voices—Native American, African American, Asian, European, Jewish, White—speak daringly on topics not often discussed in the open, on subjects such as racism, anti-Semitism, war, self-identity, gender, societal expectations. Their words will entertain, illuminate, take you to distant lands, and spark important discussions about our humanity, our culture, and our place within society and the natural world.

Includes extensive, in-depth discussion questions for book clubs and instructors, along with fun, challenging “NET assignments” for high school and college students.

With an introduction by acclaimed writer David Mura

The Chalk Circle at turns can amuse, bemuse, and challenge readers to redefine the spaces they occupy in society. — The Los Angeles Review

[The essayists'] amalgamated vision is educational and resonant. —World Literature Today, July/Aug 2013

The book carries a variety of stark, honest, and well-rendered first person narratives. —ForeWord Reviews, June 2012 Issue