american essays

A collection of critical essays by female poets on the works of poets such as Emily Dickinson, Phillis Wheatley, Marianne Moore, and Sylvia Plath, among others.

Traces the history of American literary criticism, with numerous representative examples to demonstrate the development of American literature in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Presents a collection of autobiographical essays, cultural commentaries, book reviews, and personal prose by twentieth-century author Margaret Atwood including her "Letter to America" written after September 11, 2001.

A collection of essays in which the African-American author discusses the things she cares about, shares personal experiences, and offers her opinion on a wide variety of subjects, including age and sexuality, the burdens of fame, and rage and violence.

A collection of essays reflecting on Mexicans, Okies, poverty, childhood, poets and poetry and love--conjugal, filial, and fraternal. Each marks a step in the author's coming to terms with the world and the discovery of the radiance of human relationships.

A collection of essays, criticism, addresses, introductions, and humorous prose by John Updike.

A collection of short essays by American writers, including Amiri Baraka, Annie Dillard, Chang-rae Lee, Joyce Carol Oates, and Robert Pinsky on a variety of topics, including obsession, illusion, first loves, heroes, journeys, reunions, and endings.

A collection of twenty-two essays by American authors, chosen by guest editor David Foster Wallace as the best to be published in 2006, including selections by Jo Ann Beard, Louis Menand, Molly Peacock, Jerald Walker, and others.