Includes bibliographical references (pages 372-386) and index.
Also issued online.
Introduction / Doris Betts -- Margaret Walker : black woman writer of the South / Joyce Pettis -- Montani Semper Liberi : Mary Lee Settle and the myths of Appalachia / Jean Haskell Speer -- Ellen Douglas / Panthea Reid Broughton and Susan Millar Williams -- Elizabeth Spencer / Elsa Nettels -- Joan Williams : the rebellious heart / Judith Bryant Wittenberg -- Maya Angelou : self and a song of freedom in the southern tradition / Carol E. Neubauer -- Shirley Ann Grau's wise fictions / Linda Wagner-Martin -- Doris Betts at mid-career : her voice and her art / Dorothy M. Scura -- The southern imagination of Sonia Sanchez / Joanne Veal Gabbin -- Gail Godwin and her novels / Anne Cheney -- Sylvia Wilkinson : passages through a Tarheel childhood / Ann M. Woodlief -- Anne Tyler / Susan Gilbert -- Nikki Giovanni : place and sense of place in her poetry / Martha Cook -- Black, southern, womanist : the genius of Alice Walker / Gloria Wade-Gayles -- Lee Smith : the storyteller's voice / Harriette C. Buchanan