Assesses the work of the women of the third generation of Southern writers This collection of fifteen essays assesses the work of the women of the third generation of Southern writers. While the Southern literary Renaissance was initiated by a male-dominated generation of writers--among them William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, and Robert Penn Warren--the next generation introduced some major female talents, including Eudora Welt, Flannery O'Connor, and Carson McCullers. Southern Women Writers hails the third generation, a generation dominated by women, whose major works have been published since 1950. This collection appraises the literary works of a group whose collective achievement includes a National Book Award, Pulitzer Prizes, the Yale Younger Poets' Prize, wide-spread critical acclaim, and highly successful movie versions of their work.

Each essay surveys the writer's career, critically assessing her achievement and considering her relation to the Southern literary tradition. Written by Doris Betts, one of this tradition's most effective practitioners, the lively introduction is a richly allusive, genially instructive discourse on what is "Southern" about Southern writing.