Writer on Her Work

Superb collection of essays by and about women writing. I kept this book on my bookshelf for over 20 years, periodically reading and rereading some of the inspiring essays. Authors include Janet Sternburg, Joan Didion ("Why I write"), Susan Griffin, Alice Walker, Erica Jong, Maxine Hong Kinston, Muriel Rukeyser ("The Education of a Poet"), Anne Tyler, Gail Godwin, and more - a total of 17 personal essays. A great read!

As a young writer, Janet Sternburg searched for a book about woman writers: how they came to be, how they viewed their lives, how they treated their work. It was the seventies and none existed, so she put together The Writer on Her Work and it was published in 1981 - a book featuring women writing about writing. This year marks its anniversary (thus, the new edition) with a touching preface by Julia Alvarez, plus an updated introduction and bios of the 17 women who contributed to the landmark collection. Established, unknown and up-and-coming writers of the time - including Maxine Hong Kingston, Joan Didion and Alice Walker - reflect on writing and lives as writers, through heartfelt and sometimes hilarious commentary. The value of this book is reading how these women, writing in different genres, pursued their passion in the face of opposition. Whether that opposition took on the form of household responsibilities, writer's block, dissenting peers or a male-dominated marketplace, it's interesting tackling the dilemma through their eyes and in that time; making a place for themselves, and their work, discovering in that world, she dominates. This speaks to the heart of the book, a community of women's voices, whether alive or deceased, writing because they had to, sharing profound experiences and reflections on being a woman creating. The Writer on Her Work offers diverse personalities expressing their romance with words, also acknowledging the ups and downs that come with that relationship. Each essay is an inspiring testament to the continuing struggle and undeniable beauty of the female spirit in print.

I've loved this book since 1980, when I bought a copy and read it and lent it and recommended it many times over since then. This new edition is even better. The pieces, personal and trenchant, ingeniously selected by Sternburg over twenty years ago, have withstood the test of time. There is deep feeling, variety, astonishing articulation of complex things, and warmth and humor in these essays. Many of the writers fight to write, and show us their battle plans. It's inspiring and encouraging, and sometimes it's sad. Some - I am thinking of young writer Michele Murray, who struggled against terrible odds - are heartbreaking. Anne Tyler's darkly humorous recitation of her typical working day, "Still Just Writing," is a classic. Alice Walker's essay, "One Child of One's Own" speaks to motherhood, and its fragile but undeniable relationship to a writing life.The new Preface, by Dominican-born Vermonter Julia Alvarez, is touching and insightful and very personal - in keeping with the rest of the book - and speaks to the concerns of the essays. Sternberg has also edited her orignal Introduction, and updated the contributors' notes at the book's end. Without question I'd recommend this wonderful book to anyone interested in reading women on the process of writing, the art of memoir, and the considered and considerably interesting opinions of a group of very wonderful writers.