In the Fullness of Time 32 Women on Life After 50 [Paperback]

In the Fullness of Timeis a collection of essays, poems, interviews, and photographs that speak to the experience of aging— the joys, the rewards, and the losses.


 

Contributors:

 

Abigail Thomas

Vivian Gornick

Carolyn See

Linda Gravenson

Claire Bloom

Susan Schneider

Elizabeth Frank

Jenny Allen

Laura Furman

Gail Godwin

Katherine B. Weissman

Jane Alexander

Ntozake Shange

Laura Siegel

 

Frances Itani

Martha Fay

Laurie Stone

Tina Howe

Sharon Olds

Erica Jong

Dr. Christiane Northrup

Helena María Viramontes

Beth Powning

Joan Nicholson

Jane O’Reilly

Marta Caals Istomin

Andrea Marcusa

Paula Fox

Gretchen Haight

Emily W. Upham

Margaret Howe Freydberg

Edna O’BrienIntroduction

Linda Gravenson

When this collaboration began, around a coffee table in the Hudson Valley, I was drawn to it from a somewhat different perspective than Emily’s. I had grown up in the 1940s and ’50s, before the maps of tradition were shredded, and had come through some of the losses she was anticipating but also knew of the rewards that can follow in their wake. I’d moved to the country alone with four animals as family, lived without my city neighbors for the first time, learned to drive at fifty-three, and, most important, resumed writing and editing.

I’ve always loved the richness of anthologies, particularly essay collections created to explore a complex, even mysterious landscape. We decided to seek out writers and performers willing to go wherever our theme took them. The choices were theirs. Some of the most accomplished prizewinning writers in America, Canada, and Great Britain responded. Many of thelñ