My name is Mark Richards and I’m an English major. This is my blog, dedicated to multicultural literature. I’m currently deployed to the middle east with the military, I’ve worked for 25 years as a professional engineer, I’m a husband, a father, a grandfather, and I’m also passionate about writing. I’m a published author of a few non-fiction short stories, and winner of the 2016 Ernestine Schumann-heink Award for outstanding military writing. If you’re interested, you can read one of my stories here.
This blog project is for a multicultural literature course. Multicultural literature is such a vast topic that it seems glib to try to sum it up in a few paragraphs or a handful of blog posts. Every culture has their own unique writing, poetry, and stories, from the oral traditions of Native American people, to ancient Chinese poetry, to post-Holocaust Jewish writing. I dipped my toes into the vast sea of global literature over the past several weeks, and I found that I was overwhelmed by how much I did not know. In the massive context of nearly three millennia of writing from dozens of different cultures, I still know nothing. But at least now I have an idea of what it is that I don’t know.
If you’re reading this, and you have any curiosity whatsoever, please take the time to read outside of your own culture and comfort zone. You don’t have to like what you read; that’s not really the point. But if you have only ever eaten roast beef and plain potatoes, then you can’t claim to know anything about food. Give it a try. Some of it will not agree with you, but you will find other delicious morsels in most unexpected places. Your mind will grow in the process, without you even being aware of it. That, my friend, is the real point.
Dive in and read my articles. Each one tackles a different topic from my class. Some topics were as gut-wrenching as they were interesting, but every topic caused me to expand my own horizons and grow as a person. I hope they do the same for you.
Also, feel free to comment. Please: no hate! I don’t mind strong disagreement or discussion, but education is not the place for hate.
I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you enjoy my writing.
Cheers!
Mark
Mokeymark 101 