Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness

by Rochelle Ratner (Editor)

A wall of silence surrounds the experience of women who are childless, whether by choice or by circumstance. Bearing Life is the first anthology to marshal the power of literature to break this silence.

Here, more than forty contemporary writers reflect candidly and movingly on what it means to live as women without children. These stories, poems, and personal essays speak directly from—and to—the conflicting, often painful, and sometimes liberating emotions of childless women. The selections move through the ambivalence and denial childless women confront within themselves, to the misunderstanding and hostility they confront in the outside world, toward a space where an acceptance and even celebration of childlessness can begin to take place.

Bearing Life includes work by Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Rita Mae Brown, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Diane diPrima, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Janice Eidus, Daniela Gioseffi, Amy Hempel, Linda Hogan, bell hooks, Hettie Jones, Irena Klepfisz, Joy Kogawa, Valerie Miner, Kathleen Norris, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Carol Oates, Grace Paley, Molly Peacock, Marge Piercy, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Evelyn C. Rosser, Jane Rule, May Sarton, Sandra Scofield, Amy Tan, Luci Tapahonso, and many others.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Essays

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jeanie Kenkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for the concept, but it could have been better executed. Only the first 1/3 or so of the book is written by childless women, and them, by choice. Could make one wonder if truly no more could be found, though the editor has her agenda. I for one crave the perspective of women who were unable to get married (and require it to have sex, thus not having children).
Didn't appreciate the fictional contributions or poems.

[Paige Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Few women’s lives can be lived without regret, as every choice seems to preclude another. I don’t regret not having a child, but sometimes I regret not wanting to have one. I regret drifting far from the stream of shared female concern; I regret not ever loving anybody *so much.* I regret my ongoing delight in solitude and freedom, because a “normal” woman does not want to be free or alone.”


4.5 stars

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and feel like it should have been included in my Woman Studies classes in college. This book is great for women who don't want children, have lost children to miscarriage or abortion, or are trying to have children through adoption, or any other method.

[Jodi Sh. · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this collection : Tie Me Up, Tie Me Off