9 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
Lois Parkinson Zamora and Wendy B. Faris, eds., Magical Realism: Theory, His-
tory, Community (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1995).
Anthology of essays offering a variety of approaches. Taken together, they trace
the origins of magical realism from Germany to contemporary literature, dem-
onstrating the international scope of magical realism in works from Europe,
Latin America, North America, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, and Australia.
PEOPLE OF INTEREST
Kathryn K. Abdul-Baki (?– )
Daughter of a Palestinian father and American mother who was born in Wash-
ington, D.C., and raised in Iran, Kuwait, Beirut, and Jerusalem. She is a journalist
and fiction writer whose works include the short-story collection Fields of Fig and
Olive: Ameera and Other Stories of the Middle East (1991) and the novels Tower of
Dreams (1995), Ghost Songs (2000), and Sands of Zulaika (2007).
Diana Abu-Jaber (1960– )
Born in Syracuse, New York, to a Jordanian father and Irish American mother.
Her works include two novels, Arabian Jazz (1993) and Crescent (2003); The
Language of Baklava (2005) is a memoir.
Rabih Alameddine (1959– )
Lebanese American fiction writer who was born in Jordan. He is the author of
KOOLAIDS: The Art of War (1998), The Perv: Stories (1999), I, The Divine: A
Novel in First Chapters (2001), and The Hakawati (2008).
Meena Alexander (1951– )
Poet and fiction writer born in India as Mary Elizabeth Alexander and raised
there and in Sudan. She has written The Bird ’s Bright Ring (1976), Without
Place (1978), Stone Roots (1980), Fault Lines: A Memoir (1993), Manhattan Music
(1997), and Raw Silk (2004).
Agha Shahid Ali (1949–2001)
Poet whose works include Bone-Sculpture (1972), A Walk through the Yellow Pages
(1987), The Beloved Witness: Selected Poems (1992), Rooms Are Never Finished
(2002), and Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals (2003).
Julia Alvarez (1950– )
Writer who was born in New York but spent her first ten years in the Dominican
Republic, which her family fled after her father’s involvement in a political rebellion.
Her novels include How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the
Butterflies (1994), ¡Yo! (1997), In the Name of Salomé (2000), and Saving the World
(2006). Her poetry collections are The Housekeeping Book (1984) and The Woman I
Kept to Myself (2004). Autobiographical essays make up Something to Declare (1998).
She has also written for young-adult audiences in Return to Sender (2009).
Rudolfo A. Anaya (1937– )
Chicano writer best known for Bless Me, Ultima (1972). His other works include
Heart of Aztlan (1976), Tortuga (1979), The Silence of the Llano: Short Stories