The Writer on Her Work

by Sternburg, Janet

• ISBN13: 9780393320558
• ISBN10: 0393320553
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

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.

Author Biography

An essayist and poet, Janet Sternburg teaches writing at the California Institute of the Arts and is vice president of PEN USA West.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Julia Alvarez
The Writer Herself: An Introduction	xix
Janet Sternburg
A Second Introduction in the Year 2000	xxvii
Janet Sternburg
Still Just Writing	3	(14)
Anne Tyler
Why I Write	17	(10)
Joan Didion
The Parable of the Cave or: In Praise of Watercolors	27	(6)
Mary Gordon
De Memoria	33	(12)
Nancy Milford
My Grandmother Who Painted	45	(26)
Honor Moore
Creating Oneself from Scratch	71	(24)
Michele Murray
On Being Female, Black, and Free	95	(12)
Margaret Walker
Thoughts on Writing: A Diary	107	(14)
Susan Griffin
One Child of One's Own: A Meaningful Digression within the Work(s)	121	(20)
Alice Walker
The Middle Period	141	(12)
Ingrid Bengis
What It Is I Think I'm Doing Anyhow	153	(16)
Toni Cade Bambara
Blood and Guts: The Tricky Problem of Being a Woman Writer in the Late Twentieth Century	169	(12)
Erica Jong
The Coming Book	181	(6)
Maxine Hong Kingston
Opening Nights: The Opening Days	187	(30)
Janet Burroway
The Education of a Poet	217	(14)
Muriel Rukeyser
Becoming a Writer	231	(26)
Gail Godwin
Notes on Contributors	257	(12)
Acknowledgments	269