The ocean of American literature / Ishmael Reed -- Chapters 7 and 8 from Fools crow / James Welch -- Excerpt from Not by the sword / Nash Candelaria -- North Albany : crucible for a childhood from O'Albany! / William Kennedy -- Saint Marie from Love Medicine / Louise Erdrich -- Lil' Yokohama from Yokohama, California / Toshio Mori -- Swimming to the top of the rain from Homemade Love / J. California Cooper -- Gravesend Bay from the Boys of Bensonhurst: Stories / Salvatore La Puma -- I'll crack your head Kotsun from All I Asking for Is My Body / Milton Murayama -- Chapter 14 from Lonely Crusade / Chester B. Himes -- Epithalamium from Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories / Hisaye Yamamoto -- Mulberry's notebook from Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China / Hualing Nieh -- Excerpts from Ceremony / Leslie Marmon Silko -- Chapters 1 and 2 from Praisesong for the Widow / Paule Marshall -- Chaper 1 from !Click song / John A. Williams -- Immigration blues from Scent of Apples: A Collection of Stories / Bienvenido N. Santos -- Excerpt from Smiles on Washington Square (a love story of sorts) / Raymond Federman -- The only real day from the Chinaman Pacific & Frisco / Frank Chin -- Chapter 2 from 'Sippi / John Oliver Killens -- Chapter 3 from The Right thing to do / Josephine Gattuso Hendin -- Recitatif / Toni Morrison -- Chapter 5 from Travelling light / Lionel Mitchell -- Chapters 1 and 2 from Mama / Terry McMillan -- Excerpts from The House on Mango Street / Sandra Cisneros -- Excerpts from Pet food and tropical Apparitions / Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn -- Chapters 4, 5, and 6 from The Underground Woman / Kay Boyle -- Excerpt from chapter 1, The book of Jamaica / Russell Banks -- Chapter 10 from Days Without Weather / Cecil Brown -- Excerpt from The Ultraviolet Sky / Alma Luz Villanueva -- Excerpt from chapter 1, The Salt Eaters / Toni Cade Bambara -- Excerpts from Griever : an American Monkey King in China / Gerald Vizenor.