This Is Not Chick Lit

Chick lit: A genre of fiction that often recycles the following plot: Girl in big city desperately searches for Mr. Right in between dieting and shopping for shoes. Girl gets dumped (sometimes repeatedly). Girl finds Prince Charming.

This Is Not Chick Litis a celebration of Americas most dynamic literary voices, as well as a much needed reminder that, for every stock protagonist with a designer handbag and three boyfriends, there is a woman writer pushing the envelope of literary fiction with imagination, humor, and depth.

The original short stories in this collection touch on some of the same themes as chick litthe search for love and identitybut they do so with extraordinary power, creativity, and range; they are also political, provocative, and, at turns, utterly surprising. Featuring marquee names as well as burgeoning talents,This Is Not Chick Litwill nourish your heart, and your mind.

Including these original stories:

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Two Days by Aimee Bender
An Open Letter to Doctor X by Francine Prose
Gabe by Holiday Reinhorn
Documents of Passion Love by Carolyn Ferrell
Volunteers Are Shining Stars by Curtis Sittenfeld
Selling the General by Jennifer Egan
The Seventy-two-Ounce Steak Challenge by Dika Lam
Love Machine by Samantha Hunt
Ava Bean by Jennifer S. Davis
Embrace by Roxana Robinson
The Epiphany Branch by Mary Gordon
Joan, Jeanne, La Pucelle, Maid of Orlans by Judy Budnitz
Gabriella, My Heart by Cristina Henrquez
The Red Coat by Caitlin Macy
The Matthew Effect by Binnie Kirshenbaum
The Recipe by Lynne Tillman
Meaning of Ends by Martha Witt

Praise forThis Is Not Chick Lit

This Is Not Chick Litis important not only for its content, but for its title. Ill know were getting somewhere when equally talented male writers feel they have to separate themselves from the endless stream of fiction glorifying war, hunting and sports by naming an anthology This Is Not a Guy Thing.Gloria Steinem

These voices, diverse and almost eerily resonant, offer us a refreshing breath of womanhood-untamed, ungroomed, and unglossed.Elle