Women writers have been traditionally excluded from literary canons and not until recently have scholars begun to rediscover or discover for the first time neglected women writers and their works. This reference includes alphabetically arranged entries on 58 American women authors who wrote between 1900 and 1945. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and discusses a particular author's biography, her major works and themes, and the critical response to her writings. The entries close with extensive primary and secondary bibliographies, and the volume concludes with a list of works for further reading.

The period surveyed by this reference is rich and diverse. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, two major artistic movements, occurred between 1900 and 1945, and the entries included here demonstrate the significant contributions women made to these movements. The volume as a whole strives to reflect the diversity of American culture and includes entries for African American, Native American, Mexican American, and Chinese American women. It includes well known writers such as Willa Cather and Eudora Welty, along with more neglected ones such as Anita Scott Coleman and Sui Sin Far.

LAURIE CHAMPION is Assistant Professor of English at San Diego State University, Imperial Valley Campus. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Southern Quarterly, Journal of the Short Story in English, Studies in Short Fiction, and the Langston Hughes Review. Her previous books include The Critical Response to Eudora Welty's Fiction (1994) and The Critical Response to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn (1991), both published by Greenwood Press.