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We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America by [Brando Skyhorse, Lisa Page]

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Lisa Page

Brando Skyhorse

We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America Kindle Edition

by Brando Skyhorse (Editor), Lisa Page (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

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Why do people pass? Fifteen writers reveal their experiences with passing.

For some, “passing” means opportunity, access, or safety. Others don’t willingly pass but are “passed” in specific situations by someone else. We Wear the Mask, edited by Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page, is an illuminating and timely anthology that examines the complex reality of passing in America.

Skyhorse, a Mexican American, writes about how his mother passed him as an American Indian before he learned who he really is. Page shares how her white mother didn’t tell friends about her black ex-husband or that her children were, in fact, biracial.

The anthology includes writing from Gabrielle Bellot, who shares the disquieting truths of passing as a woman after coming out as trans, and MG Lord, who, after the murder of her female lover, embraced heterosexuality. Patrick Rosal writes of how he “accidentally” passes as a waiter at the National Book Awards ceremony, and Rafia Zakaria agonizes over her Muslim American identity while traveling through domestic and international airports. Other writers include Trey Ellis, Marc Fitten, Susan Golomb, Margo Jefferson, Achy Obejas, Clarence Page, Sergio Troncoso, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, and Teresa Wiltz.

Print length

218 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Beacon Press
Publication date

10 October 2017
File size

565 KB
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Review

"In presenting these insightful, provocative life experiences, the editors give inquisitive readers (some of whom may be passing themselves) nutritious food for thought...Sharply drawn reflections on identity fluidity, stereotypes, marginalization, and cultural assumption."
--Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Brando Skyhorse is the author of Take This Man: A Memoir and a novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park, which received the PEN/Hemingway Award. He is associate professor of English at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Lisa Page directs the creative writing program at George Washington University where she is assistant professor of English. Her work has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, the Crisis, Playboy, and the Washington Post Book World.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N5GTJYR
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press (10 October 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 565 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 218 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0807078980

Customer Reviews:
25 ratings

About the authors

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Lisa Page
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Lisa Page directs the creative writing program at George Washington University where she is assistant professor of English. Her work has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, the Crisis, Playboy, and the Washington Post Book World.
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Brando Skyhorse
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Born and raised in Echo Park, California, Brando Skyhorse is a graduate of Stanford University and the MFA Writers’ Workshop program at UC Irvine.
His first book, The Madonnas of Echo Park, received the 2011 PEN/Hemingway award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His next book, Take This Man, is a memoir to be published in June 2014.
Find out more at brandoskyhorse.com
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3 star		3%
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pianoplayer

Short, readable narratives

Reviewed in the United States on 18 September 2019

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This is a powerful collection by individuals, who write about passing as something other than they are. Most of the stories are very short. I read the book in one sitting.

2 people found this helpful

Yvonne W.

My daughter has an article in the

Reviewed in the United States on 25 October 2017

Verified Purchase

My daughter has an article in the book

Phelps Gates

Being what you're not

Reviewed in the United States on 10 August 2017

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

There's a long tradition of "passing" in American society. Originally this just meant passing as white when you have African American ancestry. But I remember (decades ago) hearing it applied to drag queens who could "pass as" women. Nowadays, it covers a wide variety of passing that involves race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion... even social class, exemplified fictionally by Eliza Doolittle, or (in the opposite direction) by Duck Dynasty. The recent case of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman passing as black, has been in the news lately. The book contains 15 narratives written by people who are (or have been) passing in one way or another, and all of them are worth reading.

I spent most of my own life passing as a heterosexual man. I was a bit surprised that none of the stories in the book involve this; perhaps the traditional male coming-of-age tale is all too common to be included here. We do encounter a couple of lesbians and transgender people. Most of the life stories involve ethnicity of various sorts. The stories are fascinating in their own right, especially the astonishing experiences of Brando Skyhorse, one of the co-editors. Perhaps the most significant thing is how the book shakes up your notions of what it means, exactly, to present yourself as a member of a particular category. What does it mean to "be" or to "pretend to be" someone or something. Lots of good reading and food for thought.

9 people found this helpful

banana wind

This collection of stories was fairly interesting - growing up ...

Reviewed in the United States on 12 June 2018

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

This collection of stories was fairly interesting - growing up jewish and passing as protestant in a white bread town is what piqued my interest in this book. Others have reviewed the stories similiarly to how I saw them; to me the book is a general reminder of human nature. It's not an American story, it's a collection of human stories. Whether we grow up in a small village of a few hundred or in a big multi-cultural city, we all want to fit in and conform to pressures. We color our hair, change our religion, wear clothes to project an image, and do a plethora of things to project to the world the image of ourselves that we want it to see. This is the same thing.

Donna

Passing occurs on many levels in society. There is ...

Reviewed in the United States on 27 March 2018

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Passing occurs on many levels in society. There is racial passing, gender passing, and sexual passing - many people have, out of necessity, had to pass as something they were not. This creates tension and in many ways can be dehumanizing. If you want to pass that is one thing, however many have felt they had no choice to function in society. Many of us who haven't had to pass take a lot of freedom for granted in some ways. We Wear the Mask excels at portraying these different reasons and it shines a light on a topic that many people in positions of privilege are not aware of.

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We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America Kindle Edition

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