Joyce Carol Oates: the enclosure of identity in the earlier stories / Frank R. Cunningham ; Anne Hiemstra -- Mary Gordon: the struggle with love / John W. Mahon -- Joan Didion: the bond between narrator and heroine in Democracy / Katherine Usher Henderson -- Louise Erdich: Of cars, time, and the river / Marvin Magalaner ; Mickey Pearlman -- Alison Lurie: the uses of adultery / Katharine M. Rogers ; Mickey Pearlman -- Susan Fromberg Schaeffer: the power of memory, family, and space / Mickey Pearlman -- Toni Cade Bambara: the dance of character and community / Martha M. Vertreace -- Gail Godwin: the Odd woman and literary feminism / Rachel M. Brownstein ; Mickey Pearlman -- Jayne Anne Phillips: women's narrative and the recreation of history / Phyllis Lassner -- Mary Lee Settle: "Ambiguity of steel" / Jane Gentry Vance ; Jane gentry vance and Mickey Pearlman.