Country girl

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Catherine Ross-Stroud

"Much has been written about the state of black adolescence - often from a sociological point of view situating black teens in an at-risk category. However, through her characters, young adult author Janet McDonald (1954-2007) presents the wide range of adolescent life. McDonald presents the multifarious views of society in relation to the self efficacious drive of urban teens to rise above their circumstances by any means necessary." "This book is a biocritical study of McDonald and her work as it relates to the contribution she has made to teen fiction. It explains McDonald's profoundly realistic fiction, which holds wide appeal for teens in search of answers to the coming of age mystery."--BOOK JACKET.

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Beverly Cleary

The New Yorker called Beverly Cleary's first volume of memoirs, A Girl From Yamhill, a warm, honest book, as interesting as any novel. Now the creator of the classic children's stories millions grew up with continues her own fascination story. Here is Beverly Cleary, from college years to the publication of her first book. It is a fascinating look at her life and a writing career that spans three generations, continuing to capture the hearts and imaginations of children of all ages throughout the world.

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Jackie Woolley

This book is dedicated to the millions of writers out there who have heard the call but never had the thrill of a twenty-city publicity tour, a review in Publisher's Weekly or an appearance on the Today show. This personal experience book is for beginners as well as advanced writers and goes beyond mere self-help in the craft of writing.

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Kennedy Fraser

In the fourteen superb essays collected in this volume - most were published in The New Yorker and Vogue; two appear in print for the first time - Kennedy Fraser explores the uniquely female voice, the uniquely female presence, in literature and art. She reveals how the early sexual experiences of Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton colored their emotions and their work. She considers the long life in exile of Nina Berberova, with its complicated, intertwining loves and friendships. She shows us Vermeer, unrivalled "in conveying the active, passive, peculiarly feminine inner life" of another time, and Louise Colet, Flaubert's mistress, trying to find a permanent place in his life as well as in his work. Fraser writes engagingly of such survivors as the feminist Germaine Greer, the English naturalist Miriam Rothschild, and the New York haute couture designer Valentina. She observes the havoc Paul Scott and Henri Matisse wreaked on the women and families around them during their very different careers in the arts. Vignettes from her own life - about her garden, about buying meat in New York, about her sister - are interspersed throughout. And the book ends with a remembrance of her days at William Shawn's New Yorker, where she was introduced to the writing life.