Recognized from an early age as a poet of remarkable ability, the writer who was to become known as Gabriela Mistral was the first Latin American woman to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize, in 1945. Composed of archival footage and commentary from scholars and friends who discuss the personal events that affected her life and infused her work with its themes of tragic love and unfulfilled maternal love, this program provides an in-depth portrait...

One of Canada's most celebrated authors and short story writers, Margaret Laurence was born in a small prairie town in Manitoba. She was a founder of the Writer's Trust of Canada, a nonprofit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community. She is best known for her novel The Stone Age, set in fictional Manawaka. This classic documentary film traces her life from the early days. The images of her small Presbyterian hometown...

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec. This internationally acclaimed author has achieved distinction as a poet and as a novelist and is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees. She is the author of more than 50 volumes of poetry, children's literature, fiction, and nonfiction - and is perhaps best known for her novels The Edible Woman, The Handmaid's Tale, The Robber Bride, and The Blind...

This moving dramatization of Tillie Olsen's frequently anthologized "I Stand Here Ironing" is an unvarnished exploration of an impoverished single mother's ambivalence toward her worth as a parent and her 19-year-old daughter's future. Rich in subtext, the highly metaphorical story-penned in a stark and dramatic fashion devoid of cliche and sentimentality-raises important questions about individual identity, the role of women in society, the effects...

Taking inspiration from science and technology as well as art history, Anna Campbell Bliss developed a style that synthesized many of the movements of early 20th-century modernism. This film traces the broad spectrum of Bliss's life and work, ranging from the influences of her early childhood and her groundbreaking career as a Harvard-trained architect to her emergence as a cutting-edge artist fusing a wide range of elements - mathematics, computers,...

As a child of the Spanish Civil War and the repressive post-war era, Carmen Martin Gaite found kindred spirits among the Madrid literati, led by her future husband Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio, during the '50s. In her long and uninterrupted literary career, Gaite chose socially critical topics such as the relationship between the sexes and the differences between provincial and city life. Using modes of expression that became increasingly more personal...

Raised within the socially restrictive mores of a transient middle-class family and troubled with a stammering problem, Ana Maria Matute took refuge in literature. At 17, she began to use her experiences to probe the themes of lost childhood, injustice, and the lives of the marginalized. She soon developed a fresh prose style that deftly blended fantasy and realism, revitalizing the mid-20th-century Spanish literary scene. This landmark program features...

Born in Cuba to Chinese parents, award-winning novelist Zoe Valdes has achieved worldwide recognition for portraying the struggles and dreams of women. This program highlights her upbringing, education, and influences, as well as examining several of her most important books, including La Hija del Embajador and Te Di La Vida Entera.

They come from diverse backgrounds and represent a cross-section of global culture, yet they all share a passion for the written word. In this documentary, authors Gloria Steinem, Doris Lessing, Amy Tan, Isabel Allende, Bharati Mukherjee, Harriet Doerr, June Jordan, and Mona Simpson speak out about their personal lives and openly share their thoughts and feelings on the themes of childhood; love, marriage, and children; starting out as writers; the...