Almost Touching the Skies: Women's Coming of Age Stories - Hardcover

Howe, Florence; Casella, Jean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558612335 ISBN 13: 9781558612334

Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2000

Synopsis

Presents a collection of coming of age stories by such authors as Zora Neale Huston, Jo Sinclair, and Kate Chopin.

About this title

About the Author

FLORENCE HOWE is editor of No More Masks! An Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Women s Poetry and of The Politics of Women s Studies. JEAN CASELLA is co-editor of Cast a Cold Eye: American Opinion Writing. MARILYN FRENCH s books include The Women s Room, My Summer with George, and Season in Hell: A Memoir.

Reviews

This magnetic collection of women's fiction and memoirs explores "what it means to be young, gifted, and female in the U.S." Drawn from the Feminist Press' distinguished 30-year backlist, which includes both contemporary and rescued works from the past, it covers the last 120 years from the keen perspectives of 22 diverse contributors. As Marilyn French writes in her introduction, these powerful narratives enable readers to discover "a wider perspective on womanhood, and a sense of freedom." Zora Neale Hurston and Jean Gould evoke the mysteries of girlhood. Marjorie Agosin and Jo Sinclair explore the shock of adolescence and the importance of friends and mentors. And Kate Chopin and Meena Alexandra present unflinching depictions of women's work and their place in the world. One of the most remarkable excerpts is from Katharine Butler Hathaway's The Little Locksmith, a beautiful meditation on her life of physical disability and intellectual and spiritual transcendence, soon to be republished and not to be missed. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

This anthology celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Feminist Press by bringing together the coming-of-age stories of 22 writers the press has published. In the introduction, Marilyn French reminds us of what it was like, not so very long ago, to grow up female without easy access to such stories. The selections, chosen and edited by Howe and Casella (the publisher and editorial director, respectively, of the press) are grouped into three categories: family, teachers and friends, and work and the world. Fiction and nonfiction coexist in a multicultural chorus made up of voices as various as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Cade Bambara, Jo Sinclair, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Kate Chopin, Edith Konecky, and Louise Meriwether. Sometimes the change from one voice to another is jarring, but the whole shows both the variety and the commonality of the experiences of girls becoming women. Recommended for women's studies collections in both public and academic libraries.
-Mary Paumier Jones, Westminster P.L., CO
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1558612335
• ISBN 13: 9781558612334
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272