Circle of Women: An Anthology of Contemporary Western Women Writers

by Mary Clearman Blew (Editor), Kim Barnes (Editor)

This striking array of stories, essays, and poems reflects women’s experiences in the American West. Though the tales they tell reflect a variety of viewpoints, these writers share the struggle against the overwhelming isolation brought on by gender and the physical environment. Contributors Adam, Gretel Ehrlich, Anita Endrezze, Tess Gallagher, Molly Gloss, Pam Houston, Teresa Jordan, Cyra McFadden, Deirdre McNamer, Melanie Rae Thon, Marilynne Robinson, Annick Smith, Terry Tempest Williams, and Claire Davis  

Genres: Fiction, Westerns, Anthologies, Feminism

416 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1994

About the author

Mary Clearman Blew is the author of the acclaimed essay collection All but the Waltz and the memoir Balsamroot. She is the editor of When Montana and I Were Young: A Memoir of a Frontier Childhood, available in a Bison Books edition. Her most recent novel, Jackalope Dreams, is also available in a Bison Books edition. She is a professor of English at the University of Idaho and has twice won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, once in fiction and once in nonfiction. She is also the winner of a Western Heritage Award and the Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! 3 1/2 months, 386 pages of story and poems, all by women of the West. I've mostly read this during my quiet morning hot tub soaks, the most recent days with a solar-powered camping lantern to light the pages.
I have dog-eared 12 spots in the collection, poems and stories alike, and could have marked so many more.
These have been intense and thought-provoking, these stories of sisters, aunties, and grandmothers of mine. There are a couples stories that I want to share with some particular people and some poems I will have to revisit.
These are MOSTLY stories grounded in the northwest US and I have wondered about the stories of the nomads, the wanderers. Some are those stories, though I also realize that, at 18 years in Coeur d'Alene, I am more grounded here than I probably think.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the variety of writing in this book. I was quite surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I do not normally read anthologies, as they often sit on my bookshelf. This became the perfect book to put in my bag and look forward to reading anytime a quiet moment presented itself. After reading this, I decided to read another book of short stories of the west by reading the book Close Range.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wonderful selection of works by some of my favorite authors including Tess Gallagher, Annick Smith, Pam Houston, Gretel Ehrlich, and of course, Terry Tempest Williams.

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly good stories, if a bit sad, but then that is the way life is. Writing is very good in all except one story near the end.