Cultural Writing. These stories were written in English by writers who emigrated to the United States. The anthology attempts to explore the question as to why these writers choose to express themselves in a language other than their native tongue. Edited by Josip Novakovich and Robert Shapard, STORIES IN THE STEPMOTHER TONGUE includes writing by Julia Alvarez, Andrei Codrescu, Ha Jin, Bharati Mukherjee, Simon Ortiz and many others.