A collection of twelve essential short stories by iconic American women writers that introduces a more diverse canon and emphasizes non-white and queer writers to better represent the experiences of all American women and to understand the importance of the short story for women A Penguin Classic When Four Stories by American Women was first published by Penguin Classics in 1990, it understandably reflected the second-wave feminist interpretations of that time—a period marked by an impressive recovery of what were then considered to be minor American writers. Since then, the four white women writers included in the volume—Rebecca Harding Davis, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Edith Wharton—have become canonical figures, and scholars have grown to see their work as only a small part of the rich tapestry of American women’s lives, values, and political beliefs in the fertile period of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century American literature. Today, we not only have a deeper understanding of the significance of these texts and the complicated nature of their authors’ ideological orientations, scholars and educators have also expanded the canon of American women writers to more frequently foreground the voices of non-white and queer writers whose work speaks more fully to the experiences and beliefs of all American women. This updated and expanded volume, Twelve Stories by American Women edited by Arielle Zibrak, offers a more diverse selection of writers--including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, María Cristina Mena, Zitkala-Ša, Sui Sin Far, and Barbara E. Pope--; covers hot-button issues such as environmentalism, queerness, and marital status; and provides a new introduction that highlights the developments in the critical understanding of turn-of-the-century American women writers in all of their complexity.

Whether a housekeeper, secretary, lodger, or pawn-broker in a seedy area of Victorian London, the woman detective's powers of observation and deduction are most effective in uncovering and resolving crimes. These 12 engaging mysteries gives us a glimpse of some of the most memorable characters ever created--such as Miss Marple, Carlotta Carlyle, Sharon McCone and other beloved heroines of the detective novel--by both men and women writers.

Kelly Cherry's tenth work of fiction delivers twelve compelling stories about women of the American South. These are women struggling to find their way through the everyday workings of life while also navigating the maze of self. From a young woman's nightmare piano lesson to an elderly woman's luminous last breath, Twelve Women in a Country Called America takes readers on a journey sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always enlightening.