This collection gathers stories from a variety of US subcultures, inviting the reader to ponder the connections and conflicts between them. From long-standing canonical authors to newly recovered ones, each story in this volume marks another intersection of cultures in the 'melting pot' of the United States. The introductions of each story shed light on the complexity of experience that produced each one, and invite the reader to consider whether a cultural melt is possible or desirable, and what forms that melt may take.