The question of “race” and racial others in US fiction has troubled the form since its emergence, but in the 21^st century fiction has tackled particularly thorny issues. The debates in contemporary critical race theory have both criticized and maintained the categories of race and ethnicity in novels and short fiction, and longstanding debates in canonization have demanded rethinking what “ethnic” fiction is capable of achieving. This class will read US ethnic novels and short stories of the last twenty years to conceptualize the shifting categories of race and ethnicity, paired with critical and theoretical works in critical race studies. Further, we will address the continuing importance of the historical novel and genre fiction to the study of race and ethnicity. The syllabus may include works by Paul Beatty, Lise Erdrich, Myriam Gurba, Mat Johnson, Stephen Graham Jones, lê thi diem thúy, Carmen Maria Machado, Salvador Plascencia, Colson Whitehead, and Karen Tei Yamashita.