The essays in Writing American Women offer a sustained investigation of what writing has meant for North American women authors from the earliest captivity narratives to Kym Ragusa's acclaimed recent memoir, The Skin Between Us (2006). By focusing on women rather than the more porous category of gender, contributors offer a meaningful survey of the issues that have shaped women's writing in America. Some of the questions that emerge with particular force include the fraught relationship of women authors to the institutions of literary production, their complex geographical and cultural self-definition, and the special place of autobiography in their work. Combining historical, literary, institutional, and theoretical considerations, this volume bringsinto focus the rich nuances and heterogeneity of contemporary American studies as well as the vital contributions of women writers to American literature. Writers discussed in this book include Mary Rowlandson, Lucy Larcom, Amy Lowell, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Kay Boyle, Nancy Huston and Lois-Ann Yamanaka.