Women Writing on Family

Smallwood (editor, Writing and Publishing: the Librarian's Handbook) and Holland (director, Monroe P.L., WI) have assembled a diverse group of contemporary female writers in an attempt to offer a comprehensive how-to for any woman who wants to include family among her writing topics. The resulting collection mostly stays true to this niche subject. Such a narrow topic, however, leads to the problem of repetition; paring down the number of pieces or editing them more judiciously might have reduced the feeling of déjà vu. Of the book's eight parts, the first section, on "Personal and Legal Issues about Family Topics," may be the most helpful. Other sections that cover writing exercises, style, genre, publishing, and marketing, etc., are addressed more thoroughly and palatably in general writing references. Books such as Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, Joyce Carol Oates's The Faith of a Writer, and Bonnie Friedman's Writing Past Dark discuss similar ideas in a more holistic way.