Bearing life : women's writings on childlessness / edited by Rochelle Ratner.

New York : Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001.

vii, 248 pages ; 23 cm

First paperback edition.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- pt. 1. Facing choice -- January 1953 / Evelyn C. Rosser -- Reminded of my biological clock, while looking at Georgia O'Keeffe's Pelvis one / Denise Duhamel -- Women without children; women without families; women alone / Irena Klepfisz -- This is a question I do not answer / Mary Mackey -- From Rita Will / Rita Mae Brown -- Old maids / Sandra Cisneros -- The daughter of fur / Marge Piercy -- The vow / Elissa Raffa-- Tie me up, tie me off / Jodi Sh. Doff -- Minor surgery / Hettie Jones -- From The Joy Luck Club / Amy Tan -- Antisocial baby notes / Suzanne Ostro -- Pretty story / Amy Hempel -- Something I forgot to tell you / Deborah Boe -- Meditations on childlessness / Vicki Lindner -- The case against babies / Joy Williams -- The arm baby / Lynda Schor -- Outside the hive : a meditation on childlessness / Patricia Foster.

pt. 2. Knowing loss -- I get my period, September 1964 / Diane Di Prima -- From Crossing the moon / Paulette Bates Alden -- Forty, trembling / Wendy Rose -- The wash house / Pamela Walker -- Outside Pisa / Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni -- The deferred dream / Tony Dent -- The childless woman poems / Becky Birtha -- The mother / Joyce Carol Oates -- Cutting my heart out : notes toward a novel / Sandra Scofield -- The weremother / Kit Reed -- Stork talk / Rochelle Ratner -- Mother and two daughters / Janice Eidus -- Taking the train to Harmon / Daniela Gioseffi -- Norton #59900 / Judee Norton -- The child taken from the mother / Minnie Bruce Pratt -- In the garden / Grace Paley -- All the colors of sunset / Luci Tapahonso -- Nothing / Linda Hogan -- Mother of nothing / Naomi Shihab Nye.

pt. 3. Bearing life -- Land of the living / Kathleen Norris -- Liferower / Rebecca McClanahan -- You remember Sophia / Valerie Miner -- From Obasan / Joy Kogawa -- A lifetime / Ana Castillo -- Hairball / Margaret Atwood -- Chick without children : the latest celebrity interview / Nikki Dillon -- Cherry-Shiree / Shylah Boyd -- Parent as a verb / Donna Brook -- The question of children / Jane Rule -- All my kids / Elizabeth Marraffino-Rees -- Imagining motherhood / Julia Alverez -- From Black woman artist becoming / Bell Hooks -- From Journal of a solitude / May Sarton -- Upbringing / Milly Peacock.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-244).