Wild Cards [Paperback]

In this second anthology, women come together, bringing their prose and poetry. Evenly mixed between the two, the book does not strike a particular theme. The similarity that the works share is the presence of beautiful, disquieting images. The story "Anniversary" is a good example: "The machine's leather strap hangs loose now, disconnected by my husband after the needle lowered through my finger, locking it to the plate. My husband said it was my pronubial finger, the one with the nerve connected to the heart, the wedding finger." The authors and editors do not flinch at pain and hardship; they acknowledge it all as part of their characters' lives and describe it in such beautiful language that the full meaning takes time to sink in. This anthology is a good introduction to many excellent new authors who will be at the forefront of women's literature in the near future. Ellie Barta-Moran
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'Dreamlike and sparsely elegant... impressive ... An anthology of genuinely high quality' -- THE SCOTSMAN

A lover haunted by the scent of wolves; a wife traded for a beautiful beggar; a dead mother swinging from a beam in a barn. These are some of the images in this second selection of disquieting prose and poetry by some of the best new women writers of 1999. Familiar topics are shuffled with wild cards, then re-dealt in another series of winning hands. Brilliant contemporary writing from the next generation of literary stars. Read them here first...

The editors of the anthology all live in Newcastle. They are the poets Maggie Hannan and Pippa Little and the novelists Debbie Taylor and Andrea Bandenoch.