Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings, by Janet Zandy

Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings by Janet Zandy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are times when we could use a short piece of writing, whether an essay, short story, poem, what-have-you, something that one can finish in a short period of time before going on to the next short piece. Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings, edited by Janet Zandy, is close to as perfect a collection of short writings as can be found.

The introduction shows that this can be used as a classroom text, describing class (working-class, middle class, etc.), writing, the lives of working-class women, as well as working-class literature. Zandy explains that "the life experiences of working-class women are not affirmed or valued in the dominant culture, or considered fitting subjects for literature. This anthology looks at the lives of working-class women at the crossroads of their lived experiences and their imagined ones, those they might call home."

Zandy, a professor at the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology for many years (now Professor Emerita), grew up in a working-class family, and experienced the feelings of not quite fitting in, once she'd earned her degrees and began teaching; editing a book of working-class writing is a good fit.

The book itself has writings in three major sections: Part One: Telling Stories; Part Two: Bearing Witness; and Part Three: Celebrating Solidarity. Each section has several subsections, with several essays, short stories, and poems dealing with working-class women.

The writers themselves are as varied as their writings: we're offered pieces by Sandra Cisneros, Dorthy Allison, Mother (Mary) Jones, Tillie Olsen, Agnes Smedley, Marge Piercy, and many more.

As far as anthologies go for under-valued writers, Janet Zandy 's Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings is well worth the read.

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