A Story Larger than My Own
Women Writers Look Back on Their Lives and Careers
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
Janet Burroway
Janet Burroway
Julia Alvarez
The Older Writer in the Underworld
Margaret Atwood
On Craft
Madeleine Blais
The Ratio Is Narrowing
Rosellen Brown
Parsing Ambition
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mothers and Daughters
Toi Derricotte
The Offices of My Heart
Gail Godwin
Working on the Ending
Patricia Henley
The Potholder Model of Literary Ambition
Erica Jong
Breaking the Final Taboo
Marilyn Krysl
Passing It On
Maxine Kumin
Metamorphosis: From Light Verse to the Poetry of Witness
Honor Moore
On Certainty
Alicia Ostriker
Splitting Open: Some Poems on Aging
Linda Pastan
Old Woman, or Nearly So Myself: An Essay in Poems
Edith Pearlman
Public Appearances
Hilda Raz
Say Yes
Jane Smiley
Boys and Girls
Laura Tohe
The Stories from Which I Come
Hilma Wolitzer
What I Know
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Review Quotes
Starred Review | Publishers Weekly
"The variety of voices and styles adds up to a mesmerizing tapestry of a generation, made up of both individual experiences and the commonalities between them. Readers of all walks of life will find much to savor here."
Sandra Gilbert, coauthor of The Madwoman in the Attic
“In A Story Larger than My Own, Janet Burroway has cannily compiled a glittering collage of narratives that dramatizes the achievements, perspectives, and problems of older women writers. From Margaret Atwood to Alicia Ostriker, Toi Derricote to Hilma Wolitaer, a range of accomplished artists review careers from which all readers have much to learn.”
Cris Mazza, author of Something Wrong with Her
"A Story Larger than My Own is an essential book for women writers, for all writers, for readers, for people with mothers, for people who remember their mothers."
Jesse Lee Kercheval, author of My Life as a Silent Movie and Space: A Memoir
"Janet Burroway was my first writing teacher and when I read her work, I always hear her voice, warm and wise, giving me the courage to write. But in a very real sense, everyone in this collection is my teacher, my mentor, and to read what they have to say about writing and their writing lives, speaks directly to me. This is more than a must-read book, this is a book of psalms, of truths—a book every writer, or reader, should own."
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