This manuscript describes how innovative literacy practices such as multigenre writing and artifactual critical literacy have been used to tap into pre-service teachers' cultural identities while responding to literature. In the process of responding to literature, personal experience is crucial; therefore, in this study, I focused on the relationship between that personal experience and cultural identity. The multigenre writings or artifact narratives of pre-service teachers in response to realistic fiction books became extensions of those real-life stories and provided information about the students' cultural background. Thus, the study also investigates the possibilities these new tools offer for intercultural learning.