September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond
Edited by William Heyen
This book, which is unlike any other in our literature, was written during the three months following September 11,
2001. The editor wanted to catch the first, passionate reactions of many of our finest creative writers to a matrix of
grievous events that would continue to intensify in the American memory as have few others. In September 11, 2001:
American Writers Respond, more than 125 fiction writers, poets, and essayists are seized in ways that often surprise
themselves: together they offer a revelation of our collective psyche during a perilous time. There are searing memoirs here,
letters, poems, brief fictions, essays, a memorial service, and contributions beyond classification. September 11, 2001 will
generate dozens of books, but over time this anthology will surely remain one of our most crucial, challenging, and important.Included are Pulitzer Prize winning authors W. S. Merwin, Henry Taylor, and John Updike, National Book Award winners Ai and Lucille Clifton, former Poets Laureates Richard Wilbur and Robert Pinsky, and winners of others of our most distinguished awards who represent the spectrum of backgrounds, approaches, and attitudes that comprise the American literary landscape: Tess Gallagher, Ray Gonzalez, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Denis Johnson, Erika Jong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ishmael Reed, Scott Russell Sanders, Joanna Scott, Ruth Stone, John A. Williams, Terry Tempest Williams, and more than one hundred others. Most of the work in September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond appears here for the first time. Heard entire, this book gives voice to a nation's artists in a time of crisis.
paperback / 456 pages / ISBN: 0-9718228-0-8 / $19.00
hardcover / 456 pages / ISBN: 0-9718228-1-6 / $49.00
publication date: July 2002