About this item

From the author of Make Your Home Among Strangers, essays on being an "accidental" American -- an incisive look at the edges of identity for a woman of color in a society centered on whitenessIn this sharp and candid collection of essays, critically acclaimed writer and first-generation American Jennine Cap Crucet explores the condition of finding herself a stranger in the country where she was born. Raised in Miami and the daughter of Cuban refugees, Crucet examines the political and personal contours of American identity and the physical places where those contours find themselves smashed: be it a rodeo town in Nebraska, a university campus in upstate New York, or Disney World in Florida. Crucet illuminates how she came to see her exclusion from aspects of the theoretical American Dream, despite her family's attempts to fit in with white American culture -- beginning with their ill-fated plan to name her after the winner of the Miss America pageant.In prose that is both fearless and slyly humorous, My Time Among the Whites examines the sometimes hopeful, sometimes deeply flawed ways in which many Americans have learned to adapt, exist, and -- in the face of all signals saying otherwise -- perhaps even thrive in a country that never imagined them here.



About the Author

Jennine Capo Crucet

Visit www.jcapocrucet.com for press, upcoming appearances, interviews, and more.Jennine Capó Crucet was born to Cuban parents and raised in Miami, Florida. Her highly-acclaimed debut story collection - named a Best Book of the Year by both the MIAMI HERALD and the MIAMI NEW TIMES - won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, the 2010 John Gardner Award, and the 2010 Devil's Kitchen Reading Award in Prose. She's been a finalist for the MISSOURI REVIEW Editor's Prize and the UC Irvine Latino Literary Award. In addition to writing, she's currently a college counselor at a nonprofit community-based organization that works with teens in South Central and downtown LA. A graduate of Cornell University, she divides her time between Miami and Los Angeles. Jennine is the recipient of the Winthrop Prize & Residency for Emerging Writers and scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Her stories have appeared in magazines such as PLOUGHSHARES, EPOCH, GULF COAST, the LOS ANGELES REVIEW, the SOUTHERN REVIEW, and others, and her book reviews have appeared in the L MAGAZINE, a New York City bi-weekly.



Read Next Recommendation

Report incorrect product information.