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Edited by the unsinkable Kevin
Powell (yes, of Real World fame), this ambitious tome contains
contributions from scribes who traffic in everything from poetry to
essays to fiction to journalism and back again.
This is Powell’s second collection as an
editor. In 1993, with Ras Baraka, he published In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young
Black Writers. Fine as In the Tradition is, Step into a World is more far-reaching, as
Powell intended. The latter features twice as many writers as the former - 106 in all -
based in nine countries. What’s nice was Powell’s criterion for inclusion: solid
writing with an eye toward craftsmanship. “If I was going to do this book, it had to
include good writers, and not just the writers I knew, or who lived in New York City, or
in America,” he writes in the forward. “Also, it did not matter if they were
famous or not, whether they were signed to a major house and had big-time agents, or if
they had only sold a handful of books or chapbooks at their local café.” The book is
almost evenly gender divided and is diverse with regard to sexuality.
Since inclusion is the order of the day in Step into a World, it encompasses more than the
usual fiction and poetry with a smattering of essays. While those genres of writing are
duly represented, it also embraces criticism, hip-hop journalism, and a section called
Dialogue, which is a kind of catchall for writings that do not fit traditional molds.
Dialogues include an e-mail, a manifesto, letters, and an address. It is quite
provocative, with Teresa N. Washington’s “An Atlantic Away: A Letter from
Africa” providing a sizable spark.
Other standout pieces include Bruce Morrow’s splendid “She and I,” in which
the author scans the divide between he and his mother and finds it a chasm he can only
close with adolescent memories, and an excerpt from Londoner Zadie Smith’s
idiosyncratic "White Teeth." But it is unfair to try to pick what’s good
from such a splendid collection. It’s like a cave filled with gold, each new
inspection yields still more glitter and substance.
M
March 2001 |
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