The Writer on Her Work

by Janet Sternburg

Overview

Published to high praise—"groundbreaking . . . a landmark" (Poets and Writers)—this was the first anthology to celebrate the diversity of women who write.

Seventeen novelists, poets, and writers of nonfiction explore how they have become writers, why they write, and what it means to be a woman and a writer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393320558
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/17/2000
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	300
Sales rank:	696,065
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Janet Sternburg, also the editor of The Writer on Her Work II, lives in Encino, California.

Table of Contents

	Preface	xi
	The Writer Herself: An Introduction	xix
	A Second Introduction in the Year 2000	xxvii
	Still Just Writing	3
	Why I Write	17
	The Parable of the Cave or: In Praise of Watercolors	27
	De Memoria	33
	My Grandmother Who Painted	45
	Creating Oneself from Scratch	71
	On Being Female, Black, and Free	95
	Thoughts on Writing: A Diary	107
	One Child of One's Own: A Meaningful Digression within the Work(s)	121
	The Middle Period	141
	What It Is I Think I'm doing Anyhow	153
	Blood and Guts: The Tricky Problem of Being a Woman Writer in the Late Twentieth Century	169
	The Coming Book	181
	Opening Nights: The Opening Days	187
	The Education of a Poet	217
	Becoming a Writer	231
	Notes on Contributors	257
	Acknowledgments	269

Editorial Reviews

In this second collection of original essays, following a volume published 10 years ago and edited by Sternburg as well, 20 women writers--poets, novelists and essayists--from five continents address their experience of the creative process and the sources from which it springs. While the pieces take myriad forms--from Jan Morris's decisive assault on gender-ascribed art to Ursula LeGuin's poem on the myths informing women's writing--many authors here discourse on common if by no means universal themes. They discuss the effects of routine, landscape, children and travel on their work; reading and its influence, and figures of inspiration to them. Of special interest are comments on the imperative to write. Joy Williams puts it: ``Assemble the ambulances. Something is going to happen.'' With its many voices, images and aphorisms--from those of Maxine Kumin to Luisa Valenzuela, from Rita Dove to Elizabeth Jolley--the book is a pleasure and a faithful companion. (Mar.)

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