“This book is a gift in every possible way.” Carolyn See, Los Angeles Times

In a companion volume to the groundbreaking The Writer on Her Work, Volume 1, Janet Sternburg again commissioned essays about what it means to be a woman who writes, this time from abroad as well as from the United States. The Writer on Her Work, Volume 2, New Essays in New Territory, includes essays from: Diane Ackerman, Margaret Atwood, Anita Desai, Harriet Doerr, Rita Dove, Gretel Ehrlich, Carolyn Forché, Kaye Gibbons, Natalia Ginzburg, Patricia Hampl, Linda Hogan, Diane Johnson, Elizabeth Jolley, Maxine Kumin, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jan Morris, Bharati Mukherjee, Elena Poniatowska, Luisa Valenzuela and Joy Williams.

“I chose to begin the first volume of The Writer on Her Work,” says Janet Sternburg, with a quote from Louise Bogan: ‘in a time lacking in truth and certainty and filled with anguish and despair, no woman should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart.’ Now, ten years later, I think about how that quote seems especially prophetic for our current time. I think, too, about how this book, like the first volume, began because I needed to read it.”

More Praise for The Writer on Her Work, Volume II, New Essays in New Territory:

“… the book is a pleasure and a faithful companion.” Publishers Weekly

“I am struck by the honesty and gravity and peculiarity of these essays, which give me a shiver of pleasure akin to looking at a Frida Kahlo self-portrait. As a fellow writer I read them and say, I understand; as a man listening to the memories and reflections of women, I say . . . I never knew.” Phillip Lopate

“The Writer on Her Work, Volume 2 is a beautiful book — original funny, eloquent, and stubbornly honest. Anyone who cares about creativity must read it.” Catharine Stimpson