Bibliograph

Quilt stories, Cecilia Macheski, editor

Type

Label

Quilt stories, Cecilia Macheski, editor

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [288]-289)

resource.governmentPublication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Quilt stories

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

bibliographydictionaries

Oclc number

622590684

Responsibility statement

Cecilia Macheski, editor

Summary

Quilting was one of the few forms of creative expression open to past generations of women. Within the acceptable confines of making something "useful," these women stitched rather than penned their stories. Other artistic avenues have opened, but the writers gathered in this unique collection still claim kinship with their quilting sisters by the use of quilts in their writingFeaturing works of Bobbie Ann Mason, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Adrienne Rich, Alice MacGowan, and many others, Quilt Stories is a colorful literary album quilt composed of the unique blocks created and signed by the writers. More than twenty-five stories, poems, and plays featuring the making of quilts - written from 1845 to the present, mainly by American women - document an important pattern in women's literary historyFive thematic sections explore quilts as expressions of remembrance and meaning (Memory Blocks), of community and courtship (Double Wedding Ring), of struggle and change (Radical Rose), of mystery and murder (Wheel of Mystery), and of age and wisdom (Old Maid's Ramble)In her introduction, Cecilia Macheski notes that these stories encourage us "to see women's literary history as a giant timeless quilting bee, where the writers gather around a frame and trade stories, gossip, and love." Renouncing the "competitiveness of the patriarchal world," women writers have, in the imagery of the quilt, instead chosen "a model of cooperative and supportive creativity."

Table Of Contents

The patchwork quilt / Annette (pseud.) -- Excerpt from Natural resources / Adrienne Rich -- Quilts / Robin Morgan -- Looking at quilts / Marge Piercy -- Celestial timepiece / Joyce Carol Oates -- My grandmother's quilt / Paulette Jiles -- The quilting party / T.S. Arthur -- Excerpt from The minister's wooing / Harriet Beecher Stowe -- Miss Jones' quilting / Marietta Holley -- A quilting bee in our village / Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman -- Aunt Jerusha's quilting party / Anonymous -- Whitework, or Bride's quilt / Jane Wilson Joyce -- Excerpt from Dougle wedding ring / Patricia Wendorf -- The dream of washing quilts / Rebecca Cox Jackson -- Gospel quilt / Alice MacGowan -- Excerpt from Black April / Julia Peterkin -- Everyday use / Alice Walker -- Bible quilt, circa 1900 / Jane Wilson Joyce -- Excerpt from How to make an American quilt / Whitney Otto -- Rose of Sharon / Jane Wilson Joyce -- Trifles / Susan Glaspell -- Excerpt from The hangman's beautiful daughter / Sharyn McCrumb -- Excerpt from The body in the kelp / Katherine Hall Page -- Pieces to a quilt / Mari Sandoz -- An honest soul / Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman -- Excerpt from Aunt Jane of Kentucky / Eliza Calvert Hall -- The bedquilt / Dorothy Canfield -- Love life / Bobbie Ann Mason

Classification

Contributor