The interviews in this volume are the outcome of a series of workshops held with women writers during 1999-2001, on the question of gender based censorship and related issues. Nearly 200 writers from ten Indian languages met to talk about the circumstances in which they write- and in which they are read and written about. They represented a true cross-section of society in terms of location, age, caste, community or religion, and genre. As they discussions progressed they unfolded a rich tapestry of experience and insight across languages and regions; gender and genre; caste and communty.

The 18 writers in this anthology are among the best known and best loBved, writing in India today. As each one speaks of her own work with rare candour and transparent sincerity, ahe also subtly illuminates the particular context in which she writes. This counterpointing of the personal and political, the private and public and the literary and social makes for accounts that are at once most unusual yet deeply moving.

Featured here are Shashi Deshpande, Sara Joseph, Jeelani Bano, Imtiaz Dharker, Bani Basu, Gauri Deshpande, Neelesh Raghuwanshi, and Jupaka Subhadra.