Dancing at the Edge of the World

Part 1 Talks and essays: the space crone; is gender necessary? redux; moral and ethical implications of family planning; it was a dark and stormy night; working on "The Lathe"; some thoughts on narrative; world-making; Macchu Picchu; place names; the princess; a non-Euclidean view of California as a cold place to be; facing it; reciprocity of prose and poetry; a left-handed commencement address; along the platte; whose lathe?; the woman without answers; the second report of the shipwrecked; foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb; room 9, car 1430; Theodora; science fiction and the future; the only good author?; Bryn Mawr commencement address; women/wilderness; the carrier bag theory of fiction; heroes; prospects for women in writing; text, silence, performance; who is responsible?; conflict; "where do you get your ideas from?"; over the hills and a great way off; the fisherwoman's daughter. Part 2 Reviews: "The Dark Tower", C.S.Lewis; " Close Encounters", "Star Wars", and the "Tertium Quid"; "Shikasta", Doris Lessing; "Kalila and Dimna", retold by Ramsey Wood; "Unfinished Business", Maggie Scarf; "The Book of the Dun Cow", Walter Wargerin Jr.; "Freddy's Book" and "Vlemk", John Gardner; "The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five", Doris Lessing; "Italian Folktales", Italo Calvino; "Peake's Progress", Mervyn Peake; "The Sentimental Agents", Doris Lessing; "Difficult Loves", Italo Calvino; "Forsaking Kingdoms": Five Poets; "The Mythology of North America", John Bierhorst; "Outside the Gates", Molly Gloss; "Silent Partners", Eugene Linden; "Golden Days", Carolyn See.