These critical essays, written specifically for instructors in literature courses, focus on longer works of prose in each of the four major ethnic literatures of the United States: Native American, Mexican American, Asian American, and African American. Each essay is accompanied by bibliographies and pedagogical strategies for helping students appreciate texts from a variety of cultures and traditions.

Instructors of broad survey courses will find this text invaluable as will those planning more specialized courses in the novel, short story, or autobiography. The authors included are ones whose works are often taught but about whom little critical comment is yet available. Teaching American Ethnic Literatures contributes to the scholarship on ethnic writing in the United States and to the effort to apply that scholarship to classroom teaching.