This is not chick lit - Elizabeth Merrick

Chick lit: A genre of fiction that often recycles the following plot: Girl
in big city desperately searches for Mr. Right in between dieting and shopping for
shoes. Girl gets dumped (sometimes repeatedly). Girl finds Prince Charming.

This
Is Not Chick Lit is a celebration of America's most dynamic literary voices, as well
as a much needed reminder that, for every stock protagonist with a designer handbag
and three boyfriends, there is a woman writer pushing the envelope of literary fiction
with imagination, humor, and depth.

The original short stories in this collection
touch on some of the same themes as chick lit-the search for love and identity-but
they do so with extraordinary power, creativity, and range; they are also political,
provocative, and, at turns, utterly surprising. Featuring marquee names as well as
burgeoning talents, This Is Not Chick Lit will nourish your heart, and your mind.


Including these original stories:

"The Thing Around Your Neck" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"Two Days" by Aimee Bender
"An Open Letter to Doctor X" by Francine Prose
"Gabe" by Holiday Reinhorn
"Documents of Passion Love" by Carolyn Ferrell
"Volunteers Are Shining Stars" by Curtis Sittenfeld
"Selling the General" by Jennifer Egan
"The Seventy-two-Ounce Steak Challenge" by Dika Lam
"Love Machine" by Samantha Hunt
"Ava Bean" by Jennifer S. Davis
"Embrace" by Roxana Robinson
"The Epiphany Branch" by Mary Gordon
"Joan, Jeanne, La Pucelle, Maid of Orlans" by Judy Budnitz
"Gabriella, My Heart" by Cristina Henrquez
"The Red Coat" by Caitlin Macy
"The Matthew Effect" by Binnie Kirshenbaum
"The Recipe" by Lynne Tillman
"Meaning of Ends" by Martha Witt

Praise for This Is Not Chick Lit

"This Is Not Chick Lit is important not only for its content, but for its title.
I'll know we're getting somewhere when equally talented male writers feel they have
to separate themselves from the endless stream of fiction glorifying war, hunting
and sports by naming an anthology This Is Not a Guy Thing."-Gloria Steinem

"These
voices, diverse and almost eerily resonant, offer us a refreshing breath of womanhood-untamed,
ungroomed, and unglossed."-Elle