When Irish culture and economics underwent rapid changes during the Celtic Tiger Years, Anne Enright, Colum McCann and Eilis Ni Dhuibhne began writing. Now that period of Irish history has closed, this study uncovers how their writing captured that unique historical moment.
By showing how Ni Dhuibhne's novels act as considered arguments against attempts to disavow the past, how McCann's protagonists come to terms with their history and how Enright's fiction explores connections and relationships with the female body, Susan Cahill's study pinpoints common concerns for contemporary Irish writers: the relationship between the body, memory and history, between generations, and between past and present.

Cahill is able to raise wider questions about Irish culture by looking specifically at how writers engage with the body. In exploring the writers' concern with embodied histories, related questions concerning gender, race, and Irishness are brought to the fore. Such interrogations of corporeality alongside history are imperative, making this a significant contribution to ongoing debates of feminist theory in Irish Studies.

From Kate Chopin's turn-of-the-century Lousiana, to Gertrude Stein's war-time Paris, to Alice Walker's modern-day America, here are twenty-six short stories by the finest women writers of the twentieth century. These well-known and well-loved authors people their stories with vibrant female characters, from all over the world and all walks of life. Separately, each of these stories bears the mark of a skilled writer. Together, they celebrate woman in her many roles--as daughter, mother, worker, wife, lover, sister, and friend. In Tillie Olsen's classic, "I Stand Here Ironing," a single mother considers her success in raising a daughter. In Eudora Welty's "The Worn Path," an African-American grandmother meets with grace the impudence of a young, white man. In Alice Munro's "The Office," a wife who has too many distractions to write at home rents a room in town, only to be constantly interrupted by her landlord. Superbly written, and at once poignant and ironic, these insightful stories capture the essence of being a woman--in all its similarity, and all its diversity.

Welcome to the Ireland of its Writers

Walk the streets of Dublin with Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Roddy Doyle. Contemplate the wild glens of Wicklow with John Millington Synge and Seamus Heaney. Wander the thrilling Cliffs of Moher with Wallace Stevens. Visit antic Limerick with Frank McCourt; mysterious Coole Park with Lady Gregory; breathtaking Sligo with William Butler Yeats; wild Donegal with Brien Friel; and hidden Clare with Edna O'Brien.

No place has inspired more great literature than Ireland, which in each new generation gives birth to an astonishing number of poets, storytellers, and dramatists. For the literary pilgrim to arrive, book in hand, at the pub where Joyce set a scene or the mountain where Yeats imagined a myth is to uncover fresh meaning in the works of writers in love with their native landscape.

In For the Love of Ireland, Susan Cahill offers the jewels of Irish literature. Each selection is followed by traveler's advice on how to find and fully experience the place that's about. Whether you take this book with you to Ireland or savor it in your armchair, you will be enriched, ennobled, and entertained by writers of remarkable range and at the top of their form.

When Irish culture and economics underwent rapid changes during the Celtic Tiger Years, Anne Enright, Colum McCann and Eilis Ni Dhuibhne began writing. Now that period of Irish history has closed, this study uncovers how their writing captured that unique historical moment. By showing how Ni Dhuibhne's novels act as considered arguments against attempts to disavow the past, how McCann's protagonists come to terms with their history and how Enright's fiction explores connections and relationships with the female body, Susan Cahill's study pinpoints common concerns for contemporary Irish writers: the relationship between the body, memory and history, between generations, and between past and present. Cahill is able to raise wider questions about Irish culture by looking specifically at how writers engage with the body. In exploring the writers' concern with embodied histories, related questions concerning gender, race, and Irishness are brought to the fore. Such interrogations of corporeality alongside history are imperative, making this a significant contribution to ongoing debates of feminist theory in Irish Studies.

Take a Roman holiday with some of the world' s greatest writers
Explore the Palatine with Elizabeth Bowen. Visit the temple of the Vestal Virgins with Georgina Masson. Analyze Michelangelo' s Moses with Sigmund Freud. Stroll through ancient streets with Goethe and with Henry James. Share Alice Steinbach' s midnight epiphany on a shabby hotel balcony. Learn the art of love from Ovid. Visit villas and gardens with Edith Wharton. Enjoy Rome' s myriad moods and pleasures with Robert Browning, Eleanor Clark, Susan Vreeland, and many others.
An irresistible collection of writing about one of the world' s most beloved destinations, The Smiles of Rome spans the centuries from ancient times to the present day. Each essay resonates with the richness and turmoil of the past and overflows with a great wealth of fascinating facts and intriguing tidbits for today' s avid readers and travelers.
" Rome, " writes Susan Cahill, " has the power to blow your mind and heart." This delicious, many-layered collection honoring the city that is the heart and soul of European civilization has the same power to thrill.

Over Two Thousand Years of Spiritual Writing by Women

A pathbreaking anthology representing a tradition of the prophetic and practical wisdom of women's spirituality.

Spiritual experience is a liberating source of women's identity and their resistance to oppression. Moving from the Native American tale "The Creation of Spider Woman" and the poet-nun of Mexico Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz to the contemporary African American thinker Marian Wright Edelman and the Buddhist shaman Joan Halifax, these visionaries see justice and love, loss, aging, and freedom. It inspires them to artistic expression and political action. This deeply moving collection of memoirs, stories, poetry, letters, prayers, and theologies is a source of empowering and uplifting thought for women in any time, at any age.

"A source of great spiritual enrichment."—America

"A very satisfying anthology, illuminating and useful."—Publishers Weekly

"From Ishtar of Babylonia and Isis of Egypt to Kathleen Norris, a panorama of women's thoughts, hopes and beliefs." —Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For hundreds of years, the City of Light has set the stage for larger-than-life characters - from medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard to the defiant King Henri IV to the brilliant scientist Madame Curie, beloved chanteuse Edith Piaf, and the writer Colette. In this beautifully illustrated book, Susan Cahill recounts the lives of twenty-two famous Parisians and then takes you through the seductive streets of Paris to the quartiers where they lived and worked: their homes, the scenes of their greatest triumphs and tragedies, their favourite cafes, bars, and restaurants, and the off- the-beaten-track places where they found inspiration and love. From Sainte-Chapelle on the lie de la Cite to the cemetery Pere Lachaise to Montmartre and the Marais, Cahill not only brings to life the bold characters of a tumultuous history and the arts of painting, music, sculpture, film, and literature, she takes you on a relaxed walking tour in the footsteps of these celebrated Parisians. Each chapter opens with a beautiful four-colour illustration by photographer Marion Ranoux, and every tour begins with a Metro stop and ends with a list of 'Nearbys' - points of interest along the way, including cafes, gardens, squares, museums, bookstores, churches, and, of course, patisseries.

Colum McCann is one of the most important Irish writers in contemporary literary fiction. His work has been critically acclaimed across the globe for its artistic achievement, its thematic range and its ethical force. This Side of Brightness: Essays on the Fiction of Colum McCann is the first collection of scholarly essays to deal with McCann's oeuvre, drawing on the pioneering critical work of some of the leading figures in Irish literary studies. Touching on a host of central themes in McCann's writing - emigration, race, performance, poverty, travel, nationality and globalization - the volume covers each of McCann's publications and includes a substantial interview with the author. The book is an invaluable resource for current and future scholars of the Irish novel.

Under the spell of la dolce vita . . .

For centuries Italy has been many things to many people. In this brilliant anthology and traveler's companion, twenty-eight first-rate women writers reveal why the land that is the heart and soul of European civilization is so seductive to women.

Kate Simon walks us through a Siena filled with surprises and luminous beauty. Elizabeth Spencer writes of first coming to Italy and finding "home." Shirley Hazzard explores the mysteries of Naples. Muriel Spark writes on Venice, Edith Wharton on Rome, George Eliot on Florence, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison on San Gimignano, Patricia Hampl on Assisi. Other wonderful writers contemplate the idiosyncratic glories of Italy's architecture, cooking, art, and landscape; its culture; its places and people.

As these writers tell their stories--in fiction, memoir, and essay--of coming to understand Italy, they explore the complexity of their passions for it, mingling affection and ecstasy with intellectual curiosity. Organized geographically--from northern Italy to Rome and on to the south, Desiring Italy offers an enchanting journey for readers and travelers.