Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles

As White Oleander author Janet Fitch explains in the introduction to Women on the Edge, the stories in this collection achieve the ultimate outland status in the point of their creation, which is the edge of the continent - Los Angeles. For Los Angeles writers, the boundariness is taken to the furthest extent - for what could be more peripheral than serious short stories written in a town known predominantly for its big screens and action figures and silicone-enhanced placticine femmes? writes Fitch. Some of the women who have contributed to this collection are well-known figures in the literary landscape - Aimee Bender, Carol Muske Dukes, Lisa Teasely, Rachel Resnick - while others have little publishing experience. All, however, contribute compelling stories that are fresh in their approach, immaculate in their execution. This exciting, unexpected anthology is not a best of but rather a gathering of escritoras, a handful of voices singing in Los Angeles at a particular moment in time, their characters walking wide, weird worlds with an ear to the shifty ground.