The Writer's Presence: A Pool of Readings
The readings in The Writer’s Presence are selected exclusively for the quality of the writing. Editors Donald McQuade of the University of California, Berkeley, and Robert Atwan, Series Editor of The Best American Essays scoured hundreds of essays in search of teachable readings with strong voices and clear points of view. The result is a blend of classic pieces by favorites like James Baldwin, Annie Dillard, and Amy Tan; and fresh pieces by rising stars like Michael Pollan, Geeta...
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The readings in The Writer’s Presence are selected exclusively for the quality of the writing. Editors Donald McQuade of the University of California, Berkeley, and Robert Atwan, Series Editor of The Best American Essays scoured hundreds of essays in search of teachable readings with strong voices and clear points of view. The result is a blend of classic pieces by favorites like James Baldwin, Annie Dillard, and Amy Tan; and fresh pieces by rising stars like Michael Pollan, Geeta Kothari, James McBride, and Daniel Harris. The voices in The Writer’s Presence represent different communities, time periods, levels of difficulty, and fields of study, and the topics intersect in intriguing and nuanced ways, giving students the opportunity to think critically and develop their own voices. Organized by type of writing and with minimal apparatus, The Writer’s Presence gives instructors unsurpassed teaching flexibility. With so many exceptional readings and so many ways to teach them, the possibilities are endless.
Part I. Personal Writing: Exploring Our Own Lives Alexie, Sherman, The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me Angelou, Maya, "What's Your Name, Girl?" *Arana, Marie, Ghosts: Pishtacos Baldwin, James, Notes of a Native Son The Writer at Work — James Baldwin on Black English *Beller, Thomas, The Problem with T-Shirts Carver, Raymond, My Father's Life Cofer, Judith Ortiz, Silent Dancing The Writer at Work — Cofer on Memory and Personal Essays Cooper, Bernard, A Clack of Tiny Sparks: Remembrances of a Gay Boyhood *Daum, Meghan, Toy Children Didion, Joan, On Keeping a Notebook Douglass, Frederick, Learning to Read and Write *Dove, Rita, Major Steps *Doyle, Brian, The Knock *Ford, Richard, A City Beyond the Reach of Empathy Frank, Anne, from The Diary of a Young Girl *Gates, Henry Louis Jr., In the Kitchen The Writer at Work — Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the Writer’s Voice Hachiya, Michihiko, from Hiroshima Diary Hoagland, Edward, On Stuttering The Writer at Work — Edward Hoagland on What an Essay Is Hughes, Langston, Salvation The Writer at Work — Langston Hughes on How to Be a Bad Writer (In Ten Easy Lessons) *Kothari, Geeta, If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I? Mairs, Nancy, On Being a Cripple The Writer at Work — Nancy Mairs on Finding a Voice Malcolm X, Homeboy Mamet, David, The Rake: A Few Scenes from My Childhood Mayblum, Adam, The Price We Pay Orwell, George, Shooting an Elephant Rodriguez, Richard, Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood The Writer at Work — Rodriguez on a Writer's Identity *Satrapi, Marjane, My Speech at West Point *The Writer at Work — Marjane Satrapi on Comics Sedaris, David, Me Talk Pretty One Day Staples, Brent, Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space The Writer at Work — Another Version of Just Walk on By *Sullivan, Andrew, The M Word: Why It Matters to Me Tan, Amy, Mother Tongue Trudeau, Garry, My Inner Shrimp Walker, Alice, Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self *Walker, Jerald, Scattered Inconveniences *The Writer at Work — Jerald Walker on Writing White, E. B., Once More to the Lake Part II. Expository Writing: Shaping Information *Akst, Daniel, What Meets the Eye *Amar, Akhil Reed, Second Thoughts: What the Right to Bear Arms Really Means *Bérubé, Michael, Analyze, Don't Summarize *Bettelheim, Bruno, Hansel and Gretel Brooks, David, People Like Us *Budiansky, Stephen, The Physics of Gridlock Carter, Steven L., The Insufficiency of Honesty Cunningham, Amy, Why Women Smile DeLillo, Don, In The Ruins of the Future: Reflections on Terror, Loss and Time in the Shadow of September Eighner, Lars, On Dumpster Diving Epstein, Joseph, The Perpetual Adolescent Fallows, James, Throwing Like a Girl Frazier, Ian, All-Consuming Patriotism *Gertner, Jon, The Futile Pursuit of Happiness Gladwell, Malcolm, Big and Bad Gould, Stephen Jay, Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs *Harris, Daniel, Celebrity Bodies *Hustvedt, Siri, Eight Days in a Corset King, Stephen, Everything You Need to Know about Writing Successfully—in Ten Minutes Kingston, Maxine Hong, No Name Woman The Writer at Work — Maxine Hong Kingston on Writing for Oneself Lincoln, Abraham, Gettysburg Address The Writer at Work, Abraham Lincoln’s Hay Draft of the Gettysburg Address *McBride, James, Hip-Hop Planet *McGrath, Charles, The Pleasures of the Text *Menand, Louis, Name that Tone *Miller, Hanna, American Pie Momaday, N. Scott, The Way to Rainy Mountain Nafisi, Azar, Reading Lolita in Tehran Ofri, Danielle, SAT Orwell, George, Politics and the English Language The Writer at Work — George Orwell on the Four Reasons for Writing Pollitt, Katha, Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls *Safire, William, Changing Warming Schlosser, Eric, Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good Simic, Charles, The Life of Images *Sparrow, Fighting CIS Trillin, Calvin, A Traditional Family Tuchman, Barbara,"This Is the End of the World": The Black Death Turkle, Sherry, How Computers Change the Way We Think *Ullman, Ellen, Dining with Robots *Weed, William Speed, 106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney Winn, Marie, TV Addiction *Wolfe, Alan, On Loyalty Wolfe, Tom, Hooking Up Woolf, Virginia, The Death of the Moth *Wright, Will, Dream Machines Part III. Argumentative Writing: Contending with Issues *Appiah, Kwame Anthony, The Case for Contamination *Bass, Rick, Double-Talk *Chaudry, Lakshmi, Mirror, Mirror on the Web *Cullinan, Cormac, If Nature Had Rights Diamond, Jared, The Ends of the World as We Know Them *The Academic Voice — from Ecological Collapses of Past Civilizations *Dickerson, Debra, Who Shot Johnny? Dillard, Annie, Living Like Weasels The Writer at Work — Annie Dillard on the Writing Life Easterbrook, Greg, The Myth of Fingerprints Ehrenreich, Barbara, Family Values Ephron, Nora, The Boston Photographs Gatto, John Taylor, Against School Gibson, William, The Net Is a Waste of Time *Gopnik, Adam, Shootings Hearne, Vicki, What's Wrong with Animal Rights Jefferson, Thomas, The Declaration of Independence Kakutani, Michiko, The Word Police King, Martin Luther Jr., I Have a Dream The Artist at Work — Reenvisioning I Have a Dream, Ho Che Anderson King, Martin Luther Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail The Writer at Work — Martin Luther King Jr. on Self-Importance Kipnis, Laura, Against Love *Levitt, Steven D. and Stephen J. Dubner, Trading Up: Where Do Baby Names Come from? McKibben, Bill, Worried? Us? *Michaels, Walter Benn, The Trouble with Diversity *The Writer at Work, Walter Benn Michaels on Working with Sources *Morris, Errol, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire Nussbaum, Martha, Can Patriotism Be Compassionate? *The Academic Voice, from Cultivating Humanity in Legal Education *Paglia, Camille, The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery *Pinker, Steven, Sex Ed: The Science of Difference *Pollan, Michael, What’s Eating America *Postrel, Virginia, In Praise of Chain Stores *Sandel, Michael J., The Case Against Perfection Sanders, Scott Russell, The Men We Carry in Our Minds The Writer at Work — Scott Russell Sanders on Writing Essays *Schwartz, Barry, The Tyranny of Choice Silko, Leslie Marmon, In the Combat Zone Singer, Peter, The Singer Solution to World Poverty *The Academic Voice, from Utility and the Survival Lottery Slater, Lauren, The Trouble with Self-Esteem The Writer at Work — Lauren Slater on Writing Groups Swift, Jonathan, A Modest Proposal Truth, Sojourner, Ain't I a Woman? Twain, Mark, Corn-pone Opinions Vidal, Gore, Drugs Wideman, John Edgar, The Night I Was Nobody Williams, Terry Tempest, The Clan of One-Breasted Women Zinn, Howard, Stories Hollywood Never Tells Part IV. Voices of Modern Fiction: Six Short Stories Alexie, Sherman, What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona *Carver, Raymond, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love *The Editor at Work, Raymond Carver’s The Beginners Kincaid, Jamaica, Girl The Writer at Work, Jamaica Kincaid on Girl Oates, Joyce Carol, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? *The Writer at Work, Joyce Carol Oates on Reading O'Connor, Flannery, A Good Man Is Hard to Find The Writer at Work — Flannery O'Connor on Her Own Work *The Critic at Work, William Caverlee on A Good Man Is Hard to Find Updike, John, A&P *The Critic at Work * new to this edition
