A collection of original essays, articles, and commentaries by 44 distinguished authors, poets, fiction writers, essayists, biographers, and journalists. Topics include the existence—or lack thereof—of a specifically female or feminist point of view; appropriation of voice; the influence of various currents in feminist literary theory; the particular versus the universal, and the ambiguities inherent in such issue.

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all /Margaret Atwood -- The sound barrier: translating ourselves in language and experience / Himani Bannerji -- Within the net / Roo Borson -- Bread out of stone / Dionne Brand -- Letting the silence speak / Di Brandt -- The ovarian imperative / June Callwood -- The operative principle is trust / Anne Cameron -- Biography and feminism / Elspeth Cameron -- Writing along gender lines / Susan Crean -- Speaking the flesh / Lorna Crozier -- The problem of desire / Beverley Daurio -- Conversations with the living and the dead / Mary di Michele -- About my name / Sandy Frances Duncan -- Becoming my hero, becoming myself: notes towards a feminist theory of reading / Barbara Godard -- Voices / Leona Gom -- The present / Kristjana Gunnars -- Ole talk ; A sketch / Claire Harris -- Musings on the feminist muse ; New Year's Day, 1990 / Margaret Hollingsworth -- Letter to the editors / Janette Turner Hospital -- The particular meets the universal / Linda Hutcheon -- About women and writing / Edith Iglauer -- Never a cowgirl / Ann Ireland -- Third force feminism / Paulette Jiles -- Gender, language, genre / Janice Kulyk Keefer -- The magic of others / Lenore Keeshig-Tobias -- Poetry is for people: an interview by Pamela Banting and Kristjana Gunnars / Dorothy Livesay -- Native myths: Trickster alive and crowing / Lee Maracle -- Difference (em)bracing / Daphne Marlatt -- My evolution as a lesbian feminist writer / Mary Meigs -- A tension of isms / Kathy Mezei -- Poetry, memory and the polis / Erin Mouré -- The disappearing debate: racism and censorship / Marlene Nourbese Philip -- I only laugh when it hurts; That can't be right / Erika Ritter -- Deception in search and the truth / Jane Rule -- Chopped liver / Libby Scheier -- A feminist at the carnival / Gail Scott -- The same ticking clock / Carol Shields -- Desire and the mythology of femininity / Susan Swan -- One twelfth / Judith Thompson -- Some notes on the story of Esther / Rhea Tregebov -- Of viscera and vital questions / Aritha van Herk -- The breasts refuse / Betsy Warland -- Message machine/ Phyllis Webb -- The interrupted sex / Helen Weinzweig.