James Guilford

The Pencil Test, Guilford's debut novel, uncovers the trouble that the desire to belong can create.  When a middle-class white teen transfers to an all-black high school, she tells a reckless lie.  This lie catapults her into popularity and, ultimately, controversy.   Download free excerpts, activities, and lesson plans. 

Classroom Management 101, Guilford's free e-book, includes humorous articles with tips and tricks to help teachers create a respectful and effective classroom.  Download this e-book free by clicking here.

"How to Sound Annoyed," Guilford's short story that uncovers the way a young couple supports each other in the lie that undermines their relationship, appears in North American Review (V. 293, No. 6, p. 21). 

The North American Review (NAR) is the nation's oldest literary magazine.  Writers who have been featured in NAR include Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Yusef Komunyakaa.

"Pimp Juice," Guilford's narrative essay about homophobia, bullying, and Rastafarianism, appears in the Identity Envy anthology.  Identity Envy is a collection of creative nonfiction that explores attachment to another identity--a different race, religion, ethnicity, sex, nationality, class, a pop culture figure, something, anything--while wrestling with feelings of displacement, of not belonging.