Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women

by Patricia Bell-Scott (Editor)

Overview

Life Notes is the first collection devoted exclusively to writings from the journals, diaries, and personal notebooks of contemporary black women.

These intensely personal testimonies illuminate the complexities of black women's lives, offering unique reflections about self, family, intimacy, work, politics, life transitions, violation, and recovery.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393312065
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/17/1995
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Patricia Bell-Scott, professor emerita at the University of Georgia, wrote the award-winning The Firebrand and the First Lady, an account of Murray’s relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. She is co-editor of the best-selling Doublestitch: Black Women Write About Mothers and Daughters, which earned the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Prize, and is also co-founding editor of Sage: A Scholarly Journal of Black Women.

What People are Saying About This

Gloria Steinem

Life Notes is a collection of pieces that are intimate and universal, accessible and profound. Let traditional novelists eat their hearts out—for these women have written their hearts out.

Maya Angelou

Featured here are works by such well-known authors as bell hooks, Jamaica Kincaid, Rita Dove, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker, as well as by emerging and previously unpublished writers. The contributors are native daughters from three continents and the Caribbean, ranging in age from eight to sixty. Never in all the years have I encountered as intimate work as Life Notes. Each woman spoke secretly to me and only me, and I appreciated every admission.

Editorial Reviews

"Intimate, impassioned, often heartbreaking. . . . Reading through it is immensely rewarding—like having an hour-long, tell-all phone conversation with a close friend."— Kirkus Reviews

"Life Notes is a collection of pieces that are intimate and universal, accessible and profound. Let traditional novelists eat their hearts out—for these women have written their hearts out."— Gloria Steinem

"Featured here are works by such well-known authors as bell hooks, Jamaica Kincaid, Rita Dove, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker, as well as by emerging and previously unpublished writers. The contributors are native daughters from three continents and the Caribbean, ranging in age from eight to sixty. Never in all the years have I encountered as intimate work as Life Notes. Each woman spoke secretly to me and only me, and I appreciated every admission."— Maya Angelou

From the Publisher

A collection of personal writings, diaries and journals by black women from three continents and the Caribbean. Selections by well-known authors such as Alice Walker, bell hooks, and Audre Lorde are included, as well as writing by unknown and unpublished writers. The youngest contributor is an eight-year-old from Nigeria; the oldest is a 65-year-old retired African American telephone operator. All offer unique reflections on the complexities of black women's lives. Includes notes on contributors. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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