Risk, Courage, and Women

This unique collection of narratives, essays, and poems includes an original interview with Maya Angelou and pieces by Naomi Shihab Nye, Pat Mora, Rosemary Catacalos, and many others. Each work relates how women have demonstrated courage by taking a risk that has changed their lives. The introduction explores courage not as a battlefield quality, but as the result of thoughtful choices demonstrating integrity and self-awareness. Each section opens with a description of its organization and the significance of individual pieces. Themes include sustenance for living, faith in the unknown, the courage of choice, the seams of our lives, and crossing borders. The book begins with a conversation with Dr. Maya Angelou, the embodiment of a courageous woman. She urges readers to ""Envision"" and concludes the book with the wish ""Good morning,"" inviting all to join her in a new day reflecting ""The Power of One."" Voices of racial and ethnic diversity speak throughout the work, underscoring both difference and unity in the female experience. Including role models for university audiences and powerful reflections of life experiences for older readers, this work serves many purposes: a textbook in Literature or Women's/Gender Studies classes, a focus for book study groups, and a source for providing perspective during quiet moments. All net proceeds from book sales will go to the WINGS nonprofit organization, recipient of Oprah's Angel Network award, providing uninsured women with free breast cancer surgery, radiation, counseling, and follow-up treatments such as chemotherapy.

"I wish women could see themselves free. Just see and imagine what they could do if they were free of the national and international history of diminishment. Just imagine, if we could have a Madame Curie born in the nineteenth century, suppose that twenty other women had been liberated at the same time? That's what I wish for women: See it. Try to see yourself free. What would you do?"

KAREN A. WALDRON is Professor Emeritus of Education and former Director of Special Education at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Syracuse University and has supported the education of women and families throughout Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. JANICE H. BRAZIL is a widely published poet with involvements in Girl Scouts, Amnesty International, and hospice in Massachusetts, Illinois, and Texas. LAURA M. LABATT was president of the Bexar County Women's Center and focuses efforts on literacy, career development, and hospice. All three reside in San Antonio Texas.