Becoming: What Makes a Woman

A must-read anthology of life-altering personal experiences. The events in a woman's life etch indelible changes.

These personal essays and poems mark significant life events from early formative experiences to vibrant later years. Read stories from a war correspondent, the first female on an all-male college swim team, and a woman visiting her ex-husband at his new commune. Strong women caring for parents and children, fighting oppression, facing arranged marriages, bridging cultural and gender differences, and defending the weak.

Hear from scientists, journalists, political protesters, sisters, grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. Girls donning last-minute Halloween costumes, struggling during their first marching band practice, and figuring out how best to hang from the monkey bars. Women triumph over insecurity, illness, addiction, and loss.

Exquisitely written stories of ordinary and extraordinary experiences, from harrowing to hilarious, are the pivotal life moments that make us who we are today. "Becoming: What Makes a Woman brings to life those remarkable moments, large and small, that transform an individual, steering us toward the lives we were meant to lead.

An astonishing array of gifted writers explore intimacy, doubt, love, joy, and sorrow to form this exhilarating anthology. A rich and wonderful read." Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life "Beautifully conceived and organized, this collection unfolds much the way a woman's life reveals itself: slowly, gently, and sometimes painfully nudging our way into wisdom."

Brenda Miller, author of Season of the Body and Listening Against the Stone An excellent guide for young women in their own process of "becoming." A meaningful thank you to the visionary women who have led the way. Edited by Jill McCabe Johnson, and with a foreword by Janice Deeds, Ph.D., of the University of Nebraska Gender Programs.

The diverse collection includes essays and poems by Ellen Bass, Peggy Shumaker, Lia Purpura, Dinah Lenney, Judith Slater, Marjorie Saiser, Dilruba Ahmed, Julie L. Moore, Maria Terrone, and more.

Author: Manwaring Marjorie, Kurth Lita, Ellen Bass
Publisher: University of Nebraska Gender Programs
Published: 02/20/2012
Pages: 146
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.31d
ISBN: 9780615587103

About the Author
Jill McCabe Johnson is the director of Artsmith, a nonprofit to supports the arts. She is the recipient of the Paula Jones Gardiner Award in Poetry, and Pushcart nominations for her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Los Angeles Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Brevity, and Harpur Palate. She earned her MFA from Pacific Lutheran University and is pursuing a Ph.D. in English at the University of Nebraska.

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