Over the past one hundred and fifty years, and most especially since the late 1960s, Canadian women have made a remarkable contributon to world literature. Carol Shields won the Pulitzer Prize; Margaret Atwood, Janette Turner Hospital, Anne Michaels, and Carold Shields were shortlisted for theBooker Award; Atwood and Michaels were nominated for the Orange. This anthology encompasses over a century and a half of writing by Canadian women. The stories collected here represent a cross-section of the best writing by women in the genre and demonstrate a wide range of styles from the realisticto the post-modern and experimental. All the stories are about women: in childhood, adolescence, maturity, old age; in relationships such as daughters, sisters, lovers, mothers; in a variety of social and political contexts. Though all authors are Canadian by birth or choice, nationality and genderhave different meanings for all of them. But all write confidently and eloquently of their experience as women. At the end of the last century, no one could have predicted such wealth in women's writing. Now we have only to celebrate it.This collection of highly readable stories is ideal for the trade market while at the same time Sullivan establishes a canon of stories for the university/college market. These are writers engaging with many different genres, including historical fiction, domestic drama and more abstractintrospection. No reader will fail to be amused, entralled, intrigued, or invigorated.

Rosemary Sullivan is Professor of English at the University of Toronto. She has taught at the University of Dijon, the University of Bordeaux, and the University of Victoria. Her books include The Red Shoes: Margaret Atwood Starting Out and the award-winning Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen. Rosemary Sullivan was born in Montreal where she received her B.A. from McGill University. She completed her M.A. at the University of Connecticut and her Ph.D. at the University of Sussex. She has taught at the University of Dijon, the University of Bordeaux, and University of Victoria, and is currently a Professor of English at the University of Toronto. Her academic honors include Killam and Guggenheim fellowships, a Canada-United States-Mexico residency award, and a Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Teaching Residency in India.