Spider Woman's Granddaughters

"Impressive....Haunting....Enchanting...Every story in the book, which covers nearly a century of tradition, is interesting, written with intelligent passion." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Native American scholar, literary critic, poet, and novelist Paula Gunn Allen, who is herself a Laguna Pueblo-Sioux Indian, became increasingly aware in her academic career that the writings of Native Americans, especially women, have been marginalized by the Western literary canon. Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, including: Louise Erdrich, Mary TallMountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

Paula Gunn Allen (1939–2008) was a professor of Native American studies/ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She was the author of Skins and Bones, WYRDS, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, and The Woman Who Owned the Shadows.