Listen to their voices

by Mickey Pearlman

Following the success of her earlier essay interviews - called a "treasure trove" for writers and readers (Publishers Weekly) - Mickey Pearlman again listens to the voices of women who write. Some, like Grace Paley, Fay Weldon, and Jane Smiley, have numerous admirers. Others - Janette Turner Hospital and Jessica Hagedorn - are just now achieving recognition. And there are highly praised newcomers such as Gish Jen and Connie Porter. Novelists, short-story writers, poets. And writers of nonfiction - twenty voices in all - talk candidly about childhood, religion, the transformation of memory, and why they chose to write in a particular genre. Their feelings about being classified as "hyphenated writers" (i.e., Chinese- or Japanese-American) are aired, as well as their reactions, both positive and negative, to the world of publishing. Here, in conversations that sometimes surprise the speakers themselves, are the most deeply felt concerns. And emotions at the heart of the creative process.